"I distrust those sentiments that are too far removed from nature, and whose sublimity is blended with ridicule; which two are as near one another as extreme wisdom and folly."

"That passage is what I call the sublime dashed to pieces by cutting too close with the fiery four-in-hand round the corner of nonsense."

"It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is perfectly bombast."

"The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step below the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again."

"I wish to become a teacher of the Truth." "Are you prepared to be ridiculed, ignored and starving till you are forty-five?" "I am. But tell me: What will happen after I am forty-five?" "You will have grown accustomed to it."

"Jane borrow'd maxims from a doubting school, And took for truth the test of ridicule; Lucy saw no such virtue in a jest, Truth was with her of ridicule the test."

"We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that "ridicule is the test of truth.""

"RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth -- a ridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of Infant Respectability?"

"But children you should never let Such angry passions rise, Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes."

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so; Let bears and lions growl and fight, For 'tis their nature too."

"Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels."

"O we fell out, I know not why, And kiss'd again with tears."

"The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it."

"Cadit statim simultas, ab altera parte deserta; nisi pariter, non pugnant."

"L'aimable siècle où l'homme dit à l'homme, Soyons frères, ou je t'assomme."

"Those who in quarrels interpose, Must often wipe a bloody nose."

"All quarrels halt at the grave."

"I won't quarrel with my bread and butter."

"Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard than thou hast: thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes."

"In a false quarrel there is no true valour."

"But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour's at the stake."

"The Post Office Department is like a great root spreading many feet under ground and nourishing the mighty oak. It is the tap root of civilization."

"There buds the promise of celestial worth."

"We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears."

"You never bade me hope, 'tis true; I asked you not to swear: But I looked in those eyes of blue, And read a promise there."

"Promettre c'est donner, espérer c'est jouir."

"Promise is most given when the least is said."

"Promises and Pye-Crusts,… are made to be broken."

"His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he is now, nothing."

"And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense: That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope."

"Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens That one day bloomed and fruitful were the next."

"The Great Spirit placed me and my people on this land poor and naked. When the white men came we gave them lands, and did not wish to hurt them. But the white man drove us back and took our lands. Then the Great Father [president] made us many promises, but they are not kept. He promised to give us large presents, and when they came to us they were small; they seemed to be lost on the way."

"Giants in Their promises, but those obtained, weak pigmies In their performance."

"We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot."

"[P]eople, act upon motives. Why should they do any thing for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive---even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept."

"A man who had two sons ... went to the first and said, "Son, go out and work in my vineyard today." But he answered and said, "I will not," but afterward he repented of it and he went. And the father went to the second and said the same. But he answered, "I will, sir," and he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?"

"All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal…. If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too."

"Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons - commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith. Contracts are subject to commutative justice which regulates exchanges between persons and between institutions in accordance with a strict respect for their rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, paying debts, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without commutative justice, no other form of justice is possible."

"The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art, Reigns more or less, and glows, in ev'ry heart."

"The most pleasing of all sounds that of your own praise."

"With faint praises one another damn."

"We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud And magnify Thy name, Almighty God! But Man is Thy most awful instrument, In working out a pure intent."

"Id facere laus est quod decet, non quod licet."

"Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise."

"Solid pudding against empty praise."