Quotes, Quotations and Sayings

Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.

I do not feel betrayed. ... He has a fine record. He is a national hero. (On Oliver L North's work)

When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.

The jests of the rich are ever successful.

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.

A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.

A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home.

The life of man is a journey; a journey that must be traveled, however bad the roads or the accommodation.

Oliver's Law: Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.

The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other downThe swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While secret laughter titter'd round the placeThe bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,The matrons glance that would those looks reproveThese were thy charms, sweet village sports like these,With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to pleaseThese were thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,These were thy charms -- but all these charms are fled.

The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side.

A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

Actor: "I'm a smash hit. Why, yesterday during the last act, I had everyone glued in their seats!" Oliver Herford: "Wonderful! Wonderful! Clever of you to think of it!

Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind.

The hours that we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with success.

Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.

When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I believe, Dorothy, you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife.

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.

Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!

She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than the ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.

There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?-Mary Oliver

It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, which answered the end as well.

The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.

If one wishes to become rich they must appear rich.

There is no arguing with him, for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with the greatest possible ease.

Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.