These fellow mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are.

Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

Accept things to which fate binds you, love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.

Now is the accepted time.

We can secure other people’s approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

It is of particular value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives, forgetting loses the lesson.

Revenge-seeking minds destroy states, while those seeking reconciliation build nations.

Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.

Assumptions are the termites of relationships.

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.

A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes…loses its moral rights to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For Amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

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."

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.