The world, we are told, was made especially for man – a presumption not supported by all the facts. A numerous class of men are painfully astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all God’s universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call useful to themselves.
Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of confirming capital punishment awarded by courts… to my surprise… almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias.
Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.
Music has an intrinsic meaning, which has always been mysterious to me.
The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, which separates us from God and produces so many spiritual disorders, and which are contagious, is selfishness.
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.
A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half.
Self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
I’m investing. I’m taking a lot of bitcoin, selling it as the price goes up, and putting it into real estate. Because then if bitcoin goes to zero – which, it’s an experiment, it could – I won’t be on the street.
Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.
The fact to which we have got to cling, as to a lifebelt, is that it is possible to be a normal decent person and yet be fully alive.
Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.
Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.
When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.
Every man has three characters – that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it’s integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards.
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
Do not share the knowledge with which you have been blessed with everyone in general, as you do with some people in particular; and know that there are some men in whom Allah, may He be glorified, has placed hidden secrets, which they are forbidden to reveal.
There must be a positive and negative in everything in the universe in order to complete a circuit or circle, without which there would be no activity, no motion.
We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.
A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly.
There is no greater power in Heaven or on Earth than pure, unconditional love. The nature of the God force, the unseen intelligence in all things, which causes the material world and is the center of both the spiritual and physical plane, is best described as pure, unconditional love.
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
I look forward to a great future for America – a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
There is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original.
If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining splendour of beauty of with which I was in love would one day flood back into my heart, there to ignite a flame that would torture me without end, how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which sincere and meaningful repentance must be built. If we truly seek to put away sin, we must first look to Him who is the Author of our salvation.
The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor’s hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.
Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.
A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside.
The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
Marriage is an attempt to solve problems together which you didn’t even have when you were on your own.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Sons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.
The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question.
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.
The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.
I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all that I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
