“I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.”

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”

“What a lot of things there are a man can do without.”

“Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.”

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”

“Everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue.”

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden…But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.”

“But this momentous question. Like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.”

“Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.”

“That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.”

“No instance exists of a person’s writing two languages perfectly.”

“Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.”

“Half a loaf is better than no bread.”

“It is my rule never to take a side in any part in the quarrels of others, nor to inquire into them. I generally presume them to flow from the indulgence of too much passion on both sides, & always find that each party thinks all the wrong was in his adversary. These bickerings, which are always useless, embitter human life more than any other cause…”

“As new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

“The dead should not rule the living.”

“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.”

“Be polite to all, but intimate with few.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“The only time I have problems is when I sleep.”

“It takes skill to be real. Time to heal each other.”