"A poet’s prayer. Almighty Father! let thy lowly child, Strong in his love of truth, be wisely bold — , A patriot bard, by sycophants reviled, Let him live usefully, and not die old I, Let poor men's children, pleased to read his lays, Love, for his sake, the scenes where he hath been."

"Most of the “better sort” were not genuine Sons of Liberty at all, but timid sycophants, pliant instruments of despotism, far more intent upon the ruin of Mr Adams and America in general thsn nay Minister could be shown to be."

"Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike, where unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist, and where, as I have said, there is no legitimate power other than the people to which a man can turn."

"Oxymorons, often hilarious contradictory expressions, are sure to be the next delightful word craze, and... some of the best oxymorons around--phrases such as "pretty ugly", "plastic glasses", and many more."

"Sycophant, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked."

"You moralistic dog—admitting a hierarchy in which you are subordinate, purely that you may have subordinates; licking the boots of a superior, that you may have yours in turn licked by an underling."

"But how can he be honoured, when he does not honour himself; when he loses himself in the crowd; when he is no longer the lawgiver, but the sycophant, ducking to the giddy opinion of a reckless public; when he must sustain with shameless advocacy some bad government,..."

"The stranger pointed at the unfinished, unsatisfying image which stood beside the pool of Haranton, wherein, they say, strange dreams engender.... "What is that thing?" the stranger was asking, yet again... "It is the figure of a man," said Manuel, "which I have modeled and remodeled, and cannot get exactly to my liking. So it is necessary that I keep laboring at it, until the figure is to my thinking and my desire.""

"The comedy is always the same. In the first act the hero imagines a place where happiness exists. In the second he strives towards that goal. In the third he comes up short or what amounts to the same thing he achieves his goal only to find that happiness lies a little further down the road."

"When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

"We're all quite similar in the end. We all get old and tell the same tales too many times. But try and marry someone kind."

"Erring on the side of over-caution is costly, and so is erring on the side of under-caution, though for a given choice, one might be costlier than the other."

""It's wrong to profit from the misfortune of others." I ask my students whether they'd support a law against doing so. But I caution them with some examples. An orthopedist profits from your misfortune of having broken your leg skiing. When there's news of a pending ice storm, I doubt whether it saddens the hearts of those in the collision repair business. I also tell my students that I profit from their misfortune — their ignorance of economic theory."

"Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness."

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

"It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution."

"More firm and sure the hand of courage strikes, when it obeys the watchful eye of caution."

"Your spiritual teachers caution you against enquiry — tell you not to read certain books; not to listen to certain people; to beware of profane learning; to submit your reason, and to receive their doctrines for truths. Such advice renders them suspicious counsellors. By their own creed you hold your reason from their God. Go! ask them why he gave it."

"The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution."

"The shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself, but the inexperienced keep right on going and suffer the consequences."

"Happy is the man who is always on guard, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity."

"We know all our lines so well, ah-ha, We've said them so many times: Time and time again, Line and line again."

"If God himself had not willed repetition, the world would not have come into existence. Either he would have followed the superficial plans of hope or he would have retracted everything and preserved it in recollection. This he did not do. Therefore, the world continues, and it continues because it is a repetition. Repetition — that is actuality and the earnestness of existence. The person who wills repetition is mature in earnestness."

"It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others."

"Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution."

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."

"Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" — whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing."

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default."

"A rat race is for rats. We're not rats. We're human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement."

"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”"

"Whatever you do, be on your guard, for whoever does so keeps the commandments."

"The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."

"Scars fade with time. And the ones that never go away, well, they build character, maturity, caution."

"It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now. It is the first time in the four billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible, and that window could be open for a long time - hopefully it is - or it could be open for a short time. We should err on the side of caution and do something now."

"We must substitute courage for caution."

"Do not commence your exercises in philosophy in those regions where an error can deliver you over to the executioner."

"Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith."

"Our merciful Father has no pleasure in the sufferings of His children; He chastens them in love; He never inflicts a stroke He could safely spare; He inflicts it to purify as well as to punish, to caution as well as to cure, to improve as well as to chastise."

"Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens."

"Above all the things that you guard, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life."

"Idealists …foolish enough to throw caution to the winds… have advanced mankind and have enriched the world."

"Throw caution to the wind and just do it."

"Distrust and caution are the parents of security."

"Every step of life shows much caution is required."

"It's like, the more you commit, the happier the animators are; if you're at all iffy and concerned, then it doesn't free them up to do as much fun stuff, so you have to just go for it and, again, trust the people around you and not be seemingly guarded and numb. Throw caution to the wind a bit."

"Wives? she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes."

"Caution, not exuberance, should be our fiscal motto."