I appreciate my instincts, but my instincts can be dead wrong. Circumspection can give you time.
A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat.
Nothing is more like a wise man than a fool who holds his tongue.
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
Believe no evil till the evil's done
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
Think a lot, say little, and write nothing.
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about reform.
The cautious seldom err.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.
Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen.
The wise man knows when to keep silent. Only the fool tells all he knows.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
I try to prepare for everything beyond the extent of preparation.
If the traveler cannot find master or friend to go with him, let him travel alone rather than with a fool for company.
Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.
The wise man tells not what he knows. It is not prudent to sport with one's head by revealing the king's secrets.
Patience. Patience. Patience. The first, and last, and the middle virtue of a politician.
Common sense is not so common.
Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly.
He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
