United we stand, divided we fall.

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.

Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.

If we are to achieve richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.

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.

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

The overwhelming importance of the atmosphere means that there are no longer any frontiers to defend against pollution, attack, or propaganda. It means, further, that only by a deep patriotic devotion to one’s country can there be a hope of the kind of protection of the whole planet, which is necessary for the survival of the people of other countries.

Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to allow his vision wherever it takes him.

The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot. Men are no superior by reason of the accidents of race and color. The are superior who have the best heart—the best brain.

I shall work for the Republican party and call on all women to join me, precisely…for what that party has done and promises to do for women, nothing more, nothing less.

Why has government been instituted? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason & justice without constraint.

Conscientious objectors to vaccination should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.

Freedom ultimately means the right of the other people to do things you don’t approve of.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: "This is my country."

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were a vital one.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

Who works with all the strength he can Shall never die in debt to man.

Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.

Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves . . . But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in the state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.