A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

Truth might be heroic, but it was not within the range of practical domestic politics.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

Young people have a marvellous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.

Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.

Exploring is delightful to look forward to and back upon, but it is not comfortable at the time, unless it be of such an easy nature as not to deserve the name.

Words are clothes that thoughts wear

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.

People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.

He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

Happiness and misery consist in a progression towards better or worse; it does not matter how high up or low down you are, it depends not on this, but on the direction in which you are tending.

The principal business of life is to enjoy it.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

I have never written on any subject unless I believed that the authorities on it were hopelessly wrong.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.

Mention but the word "divinity," and our sense of the divine is clouded.

Union may be strength, but it is mere brute strength unless wisely directed.

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

Der Unterschied zwischen Gott und einem Historiker: Gott kann die Vergangenheit nicht ndern.

Every one should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it - torn up to irrecoverable tatters.

It stands to reason that he who would cure a moral ailment must be practically acquainted with it in all its bearings.

If people who are in a difficulty will only do the first little reasonable thing which they can clearly recognize as reasonable, they will always find the next step more easy both to see and take.