Some people mistake weakness for tact. If they are silent when they ought to speak and so feign an agreement they do not feel, they call it being tactful. Cowardice would be a much better name.
Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engi
Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.
The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart. He does not think beforehand that his words shall be sincere, nor that his acts shall be resolute; he simply abides in the right.
I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark.
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.
If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely gi
When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.
Only a government that is rich and safe can afford to be a democracy, for democracy is the most expensive and nefarious kind of government ever heard of on earth.
Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.
And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; there in they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber stamps.
The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced upon them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
Beauty is the first present nature gives to woman and the first it takes away.
The worst part of having success is to try finding someone who is happy for you.
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
A man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing 'what nobody does,' or of not doing 'what everybody does,' is...in peril of a commission de lunatico.
There is one characteristic of the present direction of public opinion peculiarly calculated to make it intolerant of any marked demonstration of individuality. The general average of mankind are not only moderate in intellect, but also moderate in inclinations; they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate who they are accustomed to look down upon.
My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light!
The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.
Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light.
Fame lulls the fever of the soul, and makes Us feel that we have grasp'd an immortality.
Marriage always demands the greatest understanding of the art of insincerity possible between two human beings.
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.
Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.
A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant.