Dealing with a government with whom mendacity is a science is an extremely difficult matter.
John HayMake all good men your well-wishers, and then, in the years' steady sifting, Some of them turn into friends. Friends are the sunshine of life.
John HayThe use of proverbs is characteristic of an unlettered people. They are invaluable treasures to dunces with good memories.
John HayBreak not the rose; its fragrance and beauty are surely sufficient, resting contented with these, never a thorn shall you feel.
John HayThe best loved man or maid in the town would perish with anguish Could they hear all that their friends say in the course of a day.
John HayIt would never occur to most of us that 'plants' say anything at all, except in terms of what we read into them, or try to use them for. Yet in their responses to this wonderfully rhythmic and varying earth they are the most expressive of all forms of life.
John HayWhat is first love worth, except to prepare for a second? What does second love bring? Only regret for the first.
John HayTrue luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.
John HayThere are three species of creatures who when they seem coming are going, when they seem going they come: diplomats, women, and crabs.
John HayUnto each man comes a day when his favorite sins all forsake him, And he complacently thinks he has forsaken his sins.
John HayMaidens! why should you worry in choosing whom you shall marry? Choose whom you may, you will find you have got somebody else.
John Hay