Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.

Democracy is the art of disciplining onself, so that one need not be disciplined by others.

Ifyou are leaning over to starboard to balance the boat against the other guy'spropensity to lean too far to port, both of you are about to get wet.

Experience is a hard teacher because SHE gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

Anyonewho conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence,just his memory.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Neverforget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes onand on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously.

It doesnot do to leave a Dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

Old wood best of burn, old friend to trust and old authors to read.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands ofinteractions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, allthe more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyonehas a small part of himself in both.