Whoever is careless with truth in small matters, cannot be trusted with important affairs.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

So it is more useful to watch a man in time of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask it torn off, reality remains.

Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.

You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.

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

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.

These are the arks, the trophies, I erect, That fortify thy name against old age.

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

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

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Here must all distrust be left behind; all cowardice must be ended.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

For truth is precious and divine—too rich a perl for carnal swine.

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.

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

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

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in the newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.