Echoes

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

Know how to refuse. One ought not to give way in everything nor to everybody.

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

Whoever gives reverence receives reverence.

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up.

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but truth is a greater friend.

The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatuity, when contrasted with a finer intelligence.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.

I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love.

He who is everywhere is nowhere.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.