Like dear St. Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success.
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Histories make men wise poets, witty the mathematics, subtle natural philosophy, deep moral, grave logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
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Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Aristotle, that it was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that it was a glorious gift of nature; and Ovid, that it was favor bestowed by the gods.
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Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.
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Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
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Once while St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, What would you do it you were suddenly to learn that you were to die at sunset today? He replied, I would finish hoeing my garden.
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Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.
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By far the best proof is experience.
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Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not but superstition dismounts all these, and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men...the master of superstition is the people and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reverse order.
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Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
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Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
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If any man claims the Negro should be content ... let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin and go to live in the Negro section of a large city. Then and only then has he a right to such a claim.
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Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
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Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.
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Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
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There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
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The place of justice is a hallowed place.
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Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.
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Read not to contradict and confute…nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
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I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.
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Marital intercourse is certainly holy, lawful and praiseworthy in itself and profitable to society, yet in certain circumstances it can prove dangerous, as when through excess the soul is made sick with venial sin, or through the violation and perversion of its primary end, killed by mortal sin; such perversion, detestable in proportion to its departure from the true order, being always mortal sin, for it is never lawful to exclude the primary end of marriage which is the procreation of children.
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An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident.
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The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.
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We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
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The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
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For those who intend to discover and to understand, not to indulge in conjectures and soothsaying, and rather than contrive imitation and fabulous worlds plan to look deep into the nature of the real world and to dissect it -- for them everything must be sought in things themselves.
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A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.
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Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
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Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
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A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
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