Only he has a right to complain of undeserved misfortune, that is unwilling to accept undeserved good fortune.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

The two qualities that chiefly inspire regard and affection [are] that a thing is you own and that it is your only one.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

Reality doesn't go away when it is ignored.

To a greater force, and to a better nature, you, free, are subject, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge. Therefore if the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.

Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.