Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.

Frank and explicit -- that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

I have always thought that every woman should marry, and no man.

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

I never refuse. I contradict. I sometimes forget.

It destroys one's nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

Most people die with their music still locked up inside them.

Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.

No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; To believe in the heroic makes heros.

Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

Success is the child of audacity.

The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist; because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.

The most powerful men are not public men: a public man is responsible, and a responsible man is a slave. It is private life that governs the world.

There are amusing people who do not interest, and interesting people who do not amuse.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

There is no waste of time like making explanations.

There is no wisdom like frankness.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.

What we call public opinion is generally public sentiment.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.