Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
Being convinced one knows the whole story is the surest way to fail.
The surest way to hurt yourself is to give up on love, just because it didn’t work out the first time.
Employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. in the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.