“A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others
“People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something
“An extensive knowledge is needful to thinking people- it takes away the heat and fever; and helps, by widening speculation, to ease the burden of the mystery
“The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing , to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts, not a select party
“The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
“We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
“The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That's one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living
“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health
“Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century
“Separate from the pleasure of your company, I don't much care if I never see another mountain in my life
“Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams
“He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss
“We study ourselves three weeks, we love each other three months, we squabble three years, we tolerate each other thirty years, and then the children start all over again
“There are so many things about which some old man ought to tell one while one is little; for when one is grown one would know them as a matter of course
“An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind. An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't
“The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband's bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool.