Silence is true wisdom’s best reply.

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

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wide choice of many alternatives.

Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.

We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

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.”

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable.

There is no disguise which can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.

Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?

It was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.

Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

You are a fool in four letters, my son.

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.