There is a natural prejudice which prompts men to despise whomsoever has been their inferior long after he has become their equal.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.

everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government.

The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.

I am unaware of his plans but I shall never stop believing in them because I cannot fathom them and I prefer to mistrust my own intellectual capacities than his justice.

Nations, as well as men, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years.

A whole nation cannot rise above itself.

When justice is more certain and more mild, is at the same time more efficacious.

The whole people contracts the habits and tastes of the magistrate.

To find the beauty of life, don’t complain, compliment.

The greatest of love letters are always coded for the one and not the many.

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool.

* if someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows, in all the millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars.

You can't get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.

To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self.

Mel [Bochner] sets a very high standard. He expects only the best and most thoughtful and rigorous examinations, not only of the history of art but your own practice.

All the true heroes of history will be forgotten and all the villains will be remembered as heroes.

Self-defense...is the only honourable course where there is unreadiness for self-immolation.

Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me.