JOHN HAY

Friends are the sunshine of life.

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.

… a hideous bugbear

The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of a zone of land and land under water for the construction maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of said Canal of the width of ten miles extending to the distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of the Canal to be constructed

an intellectual arrogance and unconscious assumption of superiority.

We are in a bad way. That herd of wild asses' colts [see Job 11:12], braying and kicking up their heels, is an unsatisfactory result of a hundred years of Democracy.

The attitude of the Senate toward public affairs makes all serious negotiations impossible.

… splendid little war

We want Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!

… half-baked, glib, little briefless jackleg lawyer … begging for the Presidency, as a tramp might beg for a pie.

the simplicity & quiet ease of village life, is all humbug. The city is the only place to gain a knowledge of the world.

Dealing with a government with whom mendacity is a science is an extremely difficult and delicate matter.

I think that saving a little child And bringing him to his own, Is a derned sight better business Than loafing around the throne.

There are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees, emanating from the mosses, seeping through the under currents of the soil, but you have to be willing to wait and receive.

Speak with the speech of the world; think with the thoughts of the few.

Break not the rose; its fragrance and beauty are surely sufficient, resting contented with these, never a thorn shall you feel.

Maidens! why should you worry in choosing whom you shall marry? Choose whom you may, you will find you have got somebody else.

The people will come to their own at last,-God is not mocked forever.

At my door the Pale Horse stands to carry me to unknown lands.

The best loved man or maid in the town would perish with anguish Could they hear all that their friends say in the course of a day.

Unto each man comes a day when his favorite sins all forsake him, And he complacently thinks he has forsaken his sins.

The use of proverbs is characteristic of an unlettered people. They are invaluable treasures to dunces with good memories.

True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.

It would never occur to most of us that 'plants' say anything at all, except in terms of what we read into them, or try to use them for. Yet in their responses to this wonderfully rhythmic and varying earth they are the most expressive of all forms of life.

There are three species of creatures who when they seem coming are going, when they seem going they come: diplomats, women, and crabs.