The power of a leader resides in the follower.

Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

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

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.

Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Liberty only survives when it is defended.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people – men and women, boys and girls – that make the world a special place.

If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

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

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly two be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

Either you will control your government, or government will control you.

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

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

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

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.

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

When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.

Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.

The greatest kindness one can render to any man is leading him to truth.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.

The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.

The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

But what is happiness except for the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads.

It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not to waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.

My prayer is that when I die, all hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.

I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.

Without properly kept accounts it is impossible to maintain truth in its pristine purity.

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

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

But all my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.

If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your own integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.

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."

The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.

If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences.

My own art is a negation of society, an affirmation of the individual, outside all rules and demands of society.

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

History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one is useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most impressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be saturated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.