The atrocious crime of being a young man . . . I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny.

Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effect from superior power.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

I would have it inscribed on the curtains of your bed and the walls of your chamber: "If you do not rise early you can make progress in nothing."

Where laws end, tyranny begins.

An eagerness and zeal for dispute on every subject, and with every one, shows great self-sufficiency, that never-failing sign of great self-ignorance.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that, where law ends, there tyranny begins.

Theoretical principals must sometimes give way for the sake of practical advantages.

The little I know of it has not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the Monied Interest; I mean, that blood-sucker, that muckworm, that calls itself the friend of government.

I know that I can save this country and that no one else can.

By the power of three times three!” exclaimed Gillian. “You could qualify as your own continent, man!

Happiness is loving your enemies.

The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more easily we forget it.

Scepticism is the first step toward truth.

When I'm writing, I am concentrating almost wholly on concrete detail: the color a room is painted, the way a drop of water rolls off a wet leaf after a rain.

I am a lucky, lucky person.

Wife: one who is sorry she did it, but would undoubtedly do it again.

I stare at her, as dumbstruck as if she'd just admitted she's a Scientologist with an invitation to join Tom and Katie on the spaceship when it shows up.

I just found out last week - my sister told me - that my father had some Beatles records. So I must have heard them quite a bit, but it never registered, really. Now I listen to them with new ears.

How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country?