All quotes

A man's powers ought not to be monopolised by his ordinary day's work.

In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect.

It is always the man who has tasted life who demands more of it.

The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career.

The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it.

if your ordinary day's work is thus exhausting, then the balance of your life is wrong and must be adjusted

The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will; so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself gives.

The brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of obedience.

The brain can be trained, as the hand and eye can be trained; it can be made as obedient as a sporting dog, and by similar methods.

The secret of calm cheerfulness is kindliness; no person can be consistently cheerful and calm who does not consistently think kind thoughts.

There is no royal road to the control of the brain.

When we have been engaged in the preliminaries to living for about fifty-five years, we begin to think about slacking off.

It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable.

No man is so formed that he can be left entirely to himself, to go his own ways; everyone needs to be guided by a preconceived plan, and to follow certain general rules.

Ordinary people are sociable and complaisant just from the very opposite feeling;--to bear others' company is easier for them than to bear their own.

The prime reason for social intercourse is mutual need; and as soon as that is satisfied, boredom drives people together once more.

The truth is, that our nature is essentially restless in its character: we very soon get tired of having nothing to do; it is intolerable boredom.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget,--but not himself, his own character.

To have no regular work, no set sphere of activity--what a miserable thing it is!

the need of society drives the human porcupines together--only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint

But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in “We, the people.”

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.