It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed; we see the most indistinctly the objects which are close around us.

He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.

Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.

Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.

A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.

There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil.

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.

To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself.

Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.

Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.

It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?'

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.

Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say.

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.

Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.

Happiness is no laughing matter.

A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.

It is generally true that all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe God for any blessing is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.

All men wish to have truth on their side; but few to be on the side of truth.

It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.

To know your ruling passion examine your castles in the air.

Even supposing there were some spiritual advantage in celibacy it ought to be completely voluntary

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention as attention is of memory.

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.

Of metaphors, those generally conduce most to energy or vivacity of style which illustrate an intellectual by a sensible object.

Persecution is not wrong because it is cruel; but it is cruel because it is wrong.

The relief that is afforded to mere want, as want, tends to increase that want.

It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

It is folly to shiver over last year's snow.

Superstition is not, as has been defined, an excess of religious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it on vanities of man's devising.

I think it's a lovely idea, but it will not pass the Congress. I live in a world of realities. The policy of our country is that we can drill our way to independence. I think that's a march to folly.

When knowledge is limited - it leads to folly... When knowledge exceeds a certain limit, it leads to exploitation.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

The obstinacy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinacy of folly and inanity.

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

The preserve of ambition and folly in pursuit of illusion, or delusion.

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Is there in all the history of human folly a greater fool than a clergymen in politics?

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.