Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.

I wish I knew the good of wishing.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.

The glorious fault of angels and of gods.

If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.

For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit; 'Twas Presbyterian true blue; For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant saints, whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant; Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery; And prove their doctrine orthodox, By Apostolic blows and knocks.

To offend and judge are distinct offices, And of opposed natures.

show me someone not full of herself and i'll show you a hungry person

We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.

What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness.

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee, Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Many a bum show has been saved by the flag.

His very faults smack of the raciness of his good qualities.

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.

A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.

One of the great lessons I've learned in athletics is that you've got to discipline your life. No matter how good you may be, you've got to be willing to cut out of your life those things that keep you from going to the top.

Real life seems to have no plots.