What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages.

Books are not men and yet they stay alive.

Whatever is almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is more likely to lead astray.

There is a patience that cackles. There are a great many virtues that are hen-like. They are virtue, to be sure; but everybody in the neighborhood has to know about them.

There is no part of government which cannot better suffer derangement than the ballot. If you strike the ballot with disease, it is heart disease.

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

If a man can have only one kind of sense, let him have common sense. If he has that and uncommon sense too, he is not far from genius.