The quote database

But instinct is something which transcends knowledge.

General propositions do not decide concrete cases.

the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market

Every year if not every day we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.

No one will insist upon your rights while you yourself doubt that you have any.

No one can pursue a worthy object steadily and persistently with all the powers of his mind, and yet make his life a failure.

Numa's virtue made him so celebrated that he was judged worthy to be king, Lykurgus' made him so great that he did not care to be king.

This custom of ostracism was not intended as a punishment for crime, but was called, in order to give it a plausible title, a check to excessive power.

Might not someone jeer at us in the same way, as being afraid, when we have not yet one firm friendship, that we shall without knowing it fall upon an abundance of friends?

a friend should be like money tried before being required, not found faulty in our need

Whereas among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.

We say so because we feel that what we love is not in your will, but above it.

To be great is to be misunderstood

The higher the style we demand of friendship, of course the less easy to establish it with flesh and blood.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

All the toys that infatuate men, and which they play for

It doesn't matter to me any longer how long I live, what matters to me most is how I live.

I won't have a problem with you if you aim high and miss, but I will have a real problem if you aim low and hit.

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person.

Presidential powers are not fixed but fluctuate, depending upon their disjunction or conjunction with those of Congress.

While the Constitution diffuses power the better to secure liberty, it also contemplates that practice will integrate the dispersed powers into a workable government.