Aphorisms
(page 26)
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory.
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Never complain and never explain.
Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.
Never explain — your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
Youth is a blunder, Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.
The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
