"The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum"

"When the frustration of my helplessness seemed greatest, I discovered God's grace was more than sufficient. And after my imprisonment, I could look back and see how God used my powerlessness for His purpose. What He has chosen for my most significant witness was not my triumphs or victories, but my defeat."

"Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither."

"Revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude"

"Love is an alliance of friendship and animalism; if the former predominates it is passion exalted and refined; if the latter, gross and sensual."

"To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it. The pains of power are real; its pleasures imaginary."

"When we fail our pride supports us and when we succeed, it betrays us."

"He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads."

"Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another."

"Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm."

"The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society's most basic values."

"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them."

"Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us - never cease to instruct - never cloy."

"Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess."

"It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do"

"Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can."

"There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them."

"He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are."

"When you have nothing to say, say nothing."

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost."

"Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase."

"Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another."

"When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good."

"In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good."

"To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author."

"The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little."

"The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down."

"The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame"

"Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false."

"Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom."

"Hope is a prodigal young heir, and experience is his banker"

"Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride."

"Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route."

"If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win."

"To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet."

"Our income are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and trip."

"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never."