Honest poverty is a gem that even a king might be proud to call his own - but I wish to sell out

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky. It is the prohibition that makes anything precious.

Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows

what is joy without sorrow? what is success without failure? what is a win without a loss? what is health without illness? you have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other. there is always going to be suffering. it’s how you look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you.

Prosperity is the surest breeder of insolence I know.

Good judgment comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgment.

It was a place of sin, loose women, whiskey and gambling. It was no place for a good Presbyterian, and I did not long remain one.