As the blessings of health and fortune have a beginning so they must also find an end. Everything rises but to fall and increases but to decay.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune for they are impediments to great enterprises either of virtue or mischief.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises.

When small men attempt great enterprises they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes one of his great surprises is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently but he is willing in great crises to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

I'm in politics. I'm in government so nothing surprises me.

Unfortunately corruption is widespread in government agencies and public enterprises. Our political system promotes nepotism and wasting money. This has undermined our legal system and confidence in the functioning of the state. One of the consequences is that many citizens don't pay their taxes.

Hope is a state of mind not of the world. Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.

God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.

Comedy is surprises so if you're intending to make somebody laugh and they don't laugh that's funny.

You know what's funny? I don't ever feel the need to escape. I have a strong marriage. I like my life. You hear about these guys having midlife crises - I don't see that happening to me.

True happiness arises in the first place from the enjoyment of one's self and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

If we do not change our negative habits toward climate change we can count on worldwide disruptions in food production resulting in mass migration refugee crises and increased conflict over scarce natural resources like water and farm land. This is a recipe for major security problems.

The disparity between a restaurant's price and food quality rises in direct proportion to the size of the pepper mill.

The price of every thing rises and falls from time to time and place to place and with every such change the purchasing power of money changes so far as that thing goes.

The universal human laws - need love for the beloved fear hunger periodic exaltation the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant predictable reliable universal and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture.

If we are strong and have faith in life and its richness of surprises and hold the rudder steadily in our hands. I am sure we will sail into quiet and pleasent waters for our old age.

From faith hope and love the virtues of religion referring to God there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us the hearing of the word and prayer.

All great enterprises have a pearl of faith at their core and this must be ours: that Americans are still a people born to liberty. That they retain the capacity for self-government. That addressed as free-born autonomous men and women of God-given dignity they will rise yet again to drive back a mortal enemy.

The most important American addition to the World Experience was the simple surprising fact of America. We have helped prepare mankind for all its later surprises.