Echoes

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener.

Deeds, not words.

I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith.

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.

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

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

True glory takes root and spreads; all pretenses quickly fall like flowers, and nothing feigned can last.

Never stray from the Way.

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.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

Take the happiest man, the one most envied by the world, and in nine cases out of ten his inmost consciousness is one of failure. Either his ideals in the line of his achievements are pitched far higher than the achievements themselves, or else he has secret ideals of which the world knows nothing, and in regard to which he inwardly knows himself to be found wanting.

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

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

Friendship and domestic happiness are continually praised; yet how little is there of either in the world, because it requires more cultivation of mind to keep awake affection, even in our own hearts, than the common run of people suppose. Besides, few like to be seen as they really are; and a degree of simplicity, and of undisguised confidence, which, to uninterested observers, would almost border on weakness, is the charm, nay the essence of love or friendship, all the bewitching graces of childhood again appearing.