Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Laws are commanded to hold their tongues among arms; and tribunals fall to the ground with the peace they are no longer able to uphold.
Sallust is indisputably one of the best historians among the Romans, both for the purity of his language and the elegance of his style.
A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
We live in a wondrous time in which the strong is weak because of his moral scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.
He who prides himself an extraordinary person by his deeds is rejected by the world; he who has independent ideas is hated by the mass.
The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.
The most favourable laws can do very little towards the happiness of people when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them.
Fools you are who say you like to learn from your mistakes. I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid the cost of my own.
You can't destroy the polish national-consciousness or Poles on the battlefield, but if you give them power, they will destroy themselves
It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the pursuits of many.
Laws are like spider's webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away.
Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.
There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.
Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.
The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the AEolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze.
Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.
Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit, and a series of unconnected arts. Though just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
I determined to spend the Remainder of my Days in privacy and Retirement with my Children, from whose Society alone I cou'd expect Comfort.
I do not want to speak about overpopulation or birth control, but I think education is the way to give new impetus to the poverty question.
I have always found the word 'Europe' on the lips of those who wanted something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!
Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.
There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.
I own that there is a haughtiness and fierceness in human nature which will cause innumerable broils, place men in what situation you please.
Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.
That great chain of causes, which, linking one to another, even to the throne of God Himself, can never be unraveled by any industry of ours.
Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
Men of real merit, and whose noble and glorious deeds we are ready to acknowledge, are yet not to be endured when they vaunt their own actions.
But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.
The public interest requires doing today those things that men of intelligence and good will would wish, five or ten years hence, had been done.
England and Ireland may flourish together. The world is large enough for both of us. Let it be our care not to make ourselves too little for it.
But whoever is a genuine follower of Truth, keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader.
If you come to a negotiation table saying you have the final truth, that you know nothing but the truth and that is final, you will get nothing.
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor unjust, nor impolite.
Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their own order.
Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state.
If we go back in the history of different nations, violence and the use of force are part of their heritage. These are the traditions of mankind.
I thank God, I have been able, by adopting Principles of strict Economy and Frugality, to keep my principal, I mean my Country-Estate, unimpaired.
In England the more horses a nobleman has, the more popular he is. So long as the English are devoted to racing, Socialism has no chance with you.
In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.
Nnothing tends more to the corruption of science than to suffer it to stagnate. These waters must be troubled, before they can exert their virtues.
Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age.
I shall easily show that it is impossible to tax further, ruinous to be always borrowing and not enough to confine ourselves to measures of economy.
Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man's time more completely and leaves him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever
Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.
The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.
The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at least it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgements-success.
For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every thing whatsoever
Don't wait around for your life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do it. Because everything else is all just background noise.
I believed that our own public would keep this in mind even in this serious crisis, and stand firm if only we at the front continued to stand firm too.