You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense.

Quoted in Representative Men: Uses of Great Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Give them a whiff of grapeshot.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

'If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.'

But what about speed?

Everyone knows it takes a woman nine months to have a baby. But you Americans think if you get nine women pregnant, you can have a baby in a month.