Pastoral Resources

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know.

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

It is, I claim, nonsense to say that it does not matter which individual man acted as the nucleus for the change. It is precisely this that makes history unpredictable into the future.

Let us beware of common folk, of common sense, of sentiment, of inspiration, and of the obvious.

Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.

The American people expect more from Congress. They expect fiscal responsibility and common sense. They expect us to return to the pay-as-you-go budget rules that we had enacted in the past that helped us establish a surplus, however briefly.

Common sense tells us that we should focus our resources to benefit children, teachers and taxpayers by keeping dollars in the classroom.

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.

As liberty and intelligence have increased the people have more and more revolted against the theological dogmas that contradict common sense and wound the tenderest sensibilities of the soul.

Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

Friendless. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.

Genius ain't anything more than elegant common sense.