To do something right it must be done twice. The first time instructs the second.
Small opportunities often presage great enterprises.
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose we could ever look at sociable, tool-making creatures who are from other evolutionary paths and see not beasts, but brothers, not rivals, but fellow pilgrims journeying to the shrine of intelligence. . . The difference. . . is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging.
There are all kinds of devices invented for the protection and preservation of countries: defensive barriers, forts, trenches, and the like. . . But prudent minds have as a natural gift one safeguard which is the common possession of all, and this applies especially to the dealings of democracies. What is this safeguard? Skepticism. This you must preserve. This you must retain. If you can keep this, you need fear no harm.
All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.
A cultivated reader of history is domesticated in all families; he dines with Pericles, and sups with Titian.
Classical stuff takes a lot of rehearsal time and preparation, but with stuff that involves improvisation, you can over-rehearse it and it gets stale. You don't want it to be too comfortable. In fact, a good sound check, a good rehearsal usually means a bad performance.
I'd rather live laughing for one year than live without laughing for one hundred.