One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your own business. Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men.

A man that is well ordered in his soul needeth little the unkind demeanor of worldly people nor yet their proud behavior.

As the king governs by his executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the 'spirited element.'

There are three things against which the wise man guards: lust when young, quarrels when strong, and covetousness when old.

Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

... it is a welcome symptom in an age which is commonly denounced as materialistic, that it makes heroes of men whose goals lie wholly in the intellectual and moral sphere.

A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

A man who cannot control his temper is not very likely to control his passions.

Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.

Unless a man is master of his soul all other kinds of mastery amount to little.