The first rule for speaking well is to think well.

The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them, and they make us despair in losing them.

Temperance adds zest to pleasure.

We live with our defects as with the odors we carry about us: we do not perceive them, but they incommode those who approach us.

We like to know the weakness of eminent persons; it consoles us for our inferiority.

Politeness costs little and yields much.

One of the duties of old-age, is the management of time. The less that remains to us, the more valuable we ought to consider it.

Would you be esteemed? Live with persons that are estimable.

Simplicity is oftenest an adroit pretence.

We can easily forgive want of means; but littleness, with means, is disgusting.

The most necessary disposition to relish pleasures is to know how to be without them.

Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness. At least then you will know that you have tried and that--whatever the outcome--you have traveled a noble path.

For the Archivist, this role is a result of his obligation to preserve and assure timely and maximum access to our governmental records in the evolving historic saga of the American people.

Law is the rudder of the ship of state.

I never write in the daytime. It's like running through the shopping mall with your clothes off. Everybody can see you. At night ... that's when you pull the tricks ... magic.

The road has its own reasons and no two travelers will have the same understanding of those reasons. If indeed they come to an understanding of them at all.

To speak of the impotence of power is no longer a witty paradox.

I never went to drama school, so that was more like I was getting away with it.

The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever.

The manger dares us to believe the best is yet to be. And it could all begin today.

The fight isn't over until you win it, Fitz. That's all you have to remember. No matter what the other man says.