Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.

Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Common sense is the very antipodes of science.

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

The better you are at communicating negotiating, and handling your fear of rejection, the easier life is.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.

We don't point a pistol at our own forehead. That is not the way to conduct negotiations.

But all my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.