Quote collection
290 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I would fain coin wisdom,—mould it, I mean, into maxims, proverbs, sentences, that can easily be retained and transmitted. Would that I could denounce and banish from the language of men—as base money—the words by which they cheat and are cheated!"
"It may be said that it is with our thoughts as with our flowers. Those whose expression is simple carry their seed with them; those that are double by their richness and pomp charm the mind, but produce nothing."
"If authorities were well organized, there would not be an Unknown Warrior."
"A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to give an idea of a great mind. There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and glorious composition."
"Order is to arrangement what the soul is to the body, and what mind is to matter."
"Only just the right quantum of wit should be put into a book; in conversation a little excess is allowable."
"Thus, if the clarity of our thoughts comes through better in a play of words, then the wordplay is good. One must know how to enter the ideas of others and how to leave them."
"In really good acting we should be able to believe that what we hear and see is of our own imagining; it should seem to be to us as a charming dream."
"The supreme sway of chastity over the senses makes her queenly."
"A temperate style is alone classical."
"Let us be men with men, and always children before God; for in His eyes we are but children. Old age itself, in presence of eternity, is but the first moment of a morning."
"The Bible remained for me a book of books, still divine - but divine in the sense that all great books are divine which teach men how to live righteously."
"A man who shows no defect is a fool or a hypocrite, whom we should mistrust. There are defects so bound to fine qualities that they announce them,--defects which it is well not to correct."
"To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself."
"Words become luminous when the poet's finger has passed over them its phosphorescence."
"In the interchange of thought use no coin but gold and silver."
"Grace imitates modesty, as politeness imitates kindness."
"How many books there are whose reputation is made that would not obtain it were it now to make?"
"Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food."
"Genuine bon mots surprise those from whose lips they fall, no less than they do those who listen to them."