Quotes Added in July 2007

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.George Washington

• conscience

Understand the context.

Let the hospitality of the House, with respect to the poor, be kept up; Let no one go hungry away. If any of these kind of People should be in want of Corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my Money in Charity, to the Amount of forty or fifty Pounds a Year, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean, by having no objection, is, that it is my desire that it should be done. You are to consider that neither myself or Wife are now in the way to do these good Offices. In all other respects, I recommend it to you, and have no doubts, of your observing the greatest Oeconomy and frugality; as I suppose you know that I do not get a farthing for my services here more than my Expenses; It becomes necessary, therefore, for me to be saving at home.George Washington

• charity

Understand the context.

The future belongs to the risk-takers, not the comfort-seekers.Brian Tracy

• risk

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.George Washington

• friends
• trust
• manners

All we can do is to make the best of our friends: love and cherish what is good in them, and keep out of the way of what is bad: but no more think of rejecting them for it than of throwing away a piece of music for a flat passage or two.Thomas Jefferson

• friends

The most effectual means of being secure against pain is to retire within ourselves, and to suffice for our own happiness. Those, which depend on ourselves, are the only pleasures a wise man will count on: for nothing is ours which another may deprive us of. Hence the inestimable value of intellectual pleasures. Ever in our power, always leading us to something new, never cloying, we ride, serene and sublime, above the concerns of this mortal world, contemplating truth and nature, matter and motion, the laws which bind up their existence, and that eternal being who made and bound them up by these laws. Let this be our employ. Leave the bustle and tumult of society to those who have not talents to occupy themselves without them.Thomas Jefferson

• intellect
• contentment

When there is no occasion for expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent.George Washington

• silence

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.Benjamin Franklin

• moderation

Understand the context.

Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.Benjamin Franklin

• speech
• silence
• conversation

Understand the context.