Quotes

The teacher reminded us that Rome's liberties were not auctioned off in a day, but were bought slowly, gradually, furtively, little by little; first with a little corn and oil for the exceedingly poor and wretched, later with corn and oil for voters who were not quite so poor, later still with corn and oil for pretty much every man that had a vote to sell--exactly our own history over again.

There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

Familiarity breeds contempt -- and children.

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Do not put off till tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well.

Human nature is the same everywhere; it deifies success, it has nothing but scorn for defeat.

The common eye sees only the outside of things, and judges by that, but the seeing eye pierces through and reads the heart and the soul, finding there capacities which the outside didn't indicate or promise, and which the other kind couldn't detect.

Virtue never has been as respectable as money.

The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it.

To string incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities, is the basis of the American art, if my position is correct.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.

There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all.

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

"Classic." A book which people praise and don't read.

Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God.