If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others, than you can by what others say about him!

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they will.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.

I do nothing upon myself, and yet am mine own executioner.

If everyone was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.

He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.

Oh, I offended you with my opinion? You should hear the the ones I keep to myself.

If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without.

All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

If you compromise your own conscience, you will weaken your conscience. Soon your conscience will fail to guide you and you never will have real wealth based on peace of mind.

If you can't find the truth right where you are, where else do you think you will find it.

There is but one thing of real value—to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”