When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

We should never stand upon ceremony with sincerity. We should never cheat and insult and banish one another by our meanness, if there were present the kernel of worth and friendliness. We should not meet thus in haste.

Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced.

To say that a man is your Friend means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.