Authority is by nothing so much strengthened and confirmed as by custom; for no man easily distrusts the things which he and all men have been always bred up to.

When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.

The first glass is for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the forth for my enemies.

I have always looked upon alchemy in natural philosophy to be like enthusiasm in divinity, and to have troubled the world much to the same purpose.

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of conferring them on others.

Authority is by nothing so much strengthened and confirmed as by custom; for no man easily distrusts the things which he and all men have been always bred up to.

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.

The best rules to form a young man, are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.

No one ever was a great poet, that applied himself much to anything else.

The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.

Our present time is indeed a criticizing and critical time, hovering between the wish, and the inability to believe. Our complaints are like arrows shot up into the air at no target: and with no purpose they only fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves.

The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child's home.

You may keep your beauty and your health, unless you destroy them yourself, or discourage them to stay with you, by using them ill.

Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.

Man's wisdom is his best friend; folly his worst enemy.

The problem of evil... Why does God permit it? Or, if God is omnipotent, in which case permission and creation are the same, why did God create it?

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they passed.

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is, by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he was poor.

The first ingredient in conversation is truth the next good sense the third good humor and the fourth wit.

The first glass is for myself the second for my friends the third for good humor and the forth for my enemies.

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.

To repent is to adopt God's viewpoint in place of your own.

The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes.

If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers.

All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority.

But in our age the appeal to authority is weak, and I am of my age.

And revolutions always mean the breakdown of old authority.

In revolutions authority remains with the greatest scoundrels.

We all agree that we've got to bring these terrorists to justice and to make sure that they're never allowed to perpetrate such an evil act as they did. And so all of us are dealing with that. We know that the President has the authority to go to war under the War Powers Act.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

As a result of my study, I came to the conclusion that a common supreme authority was undesirable.

Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.

The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority.

I had learned many years ago in private business never to take responsibility without adequate authority; and the new Secretary of Defense, as budgets were sharply cut, quickly found that out.

The whole basis of the Constitution was a restriction of power, and the whole basis of the federalist system was that there was not one sovereign centralized power from which all authority flows.

God is the King. In him exists all legal authority.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.

I prize the conditions under which I have lived because they have permitted me to choose my opportunities, to inquire into such matters as interested me, and to publish what I believed to be true, uncontrolled by any central authority.

I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority.

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

There are millions of kids who, naturally, if we could only remember how it is - you know, you resent authority, you are impatient for change, you want to fix things up.

For which reason I would exhort you to pay all due Regard to the government over us; to the KING and all in authority; and to lead a quiet and peaceable life.

People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

No authority is higher than reality.