Echoes

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

An honest man is always a child.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

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

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

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.

Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity there would be nothing. On this account, the superior man regards the attainment of sincerity as the most excellent thing.

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

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

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.

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

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

Truth never turns to rebuke falsehood; her own straightforwardness is the severest correction.

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

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

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.

My life is my message.

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.

We place the happy life in the security of the mind and in freedom from all obligations.