Make all good men your well-wishers, and then, in the years' steady sifting, Some of them turn into friends. Friends are the sunshine of life.

- John Hay

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

- John Hay

What is first love worth, except to prepare for a second? What does second love bring? Only regret for the first.

- John Hay

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

- John Hay

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 thei…

- John Hay

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

- John Hay

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

- John Hay

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

- John Hay

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

- John Hay