Civility is a mature ability.

To be granted some kind of usable talent and to be able to use it to the fullest extent of which you are capable—this, to me, is a kind of joy that is almost unequaled.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

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

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The question, 'Who ought to be boss?' is like asking 'Who ought to be the tenor in a quartet?' Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of everything else to which he is justly entitled.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows.

People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for a trickster and catch him at first attempt, but beware of an honest man.

No problem is so deep that it cannot be overcome, given the will of all parties, through discussion and negotiation rather than force and violence.

Aloha is free.

People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.

A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense to everything.

If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he as imagined, he will meet with success unexpectedly in common hours.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.

When you say 'yes' to others, make sure you are not saying 'no' to yourself.

Confidence…thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

Madness does not govern a country; discussion does.

I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot have if we don’t.

Never cross a man, not afraid to die.

He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

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.

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

No man will ever bring out the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.

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

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment

I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.

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

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

If there is anything in the world a person should fight for, it is freedom to pursue his ideal, because in that is his great opportunity for self-expression, for the unfoldment of the greatest thing possible to him.

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

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”

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.

Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

One man thinks himself the master of others but remains more of a slave than they are.

The greatest leader is not the the one who necessarily does the greatest things. He is the one who gets people to do the greatest things. He is

To educate in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.

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.

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.

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.

Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

You don’t have to depend on any material possessions, they depend on you, you create them, you own the one and only tool of production.

Surely what a man does when he is in an uncomfortable situation is the best evidence for the sort of man he is.

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

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

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

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

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.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.

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.

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.

All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.

I rebel; therefore I exist.

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.

If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

Born, n. a person who talks when you wish him to listen.

A leader who does not take advice is not a leader.

Hatred, as well as love, renders its votaries credulous.

Until you get comfortable with being alone, you’ll never know if you’re choosing someone out of love or loneliness.

I’m fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I’d like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don’t like being alone because they truly don’t like themselves, but I love me.

To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl of be found in the dark folds of life.

Think lovingly, speak lovingly, act lovingly, and every need shall be supplied.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

Beware of allowing a tactless word, a rebuttal, a rejection to obliterate the whole sky.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find a better man.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

No house should ever be on any hill or on anything. It should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

Real excellence does not come cheaply. A certain price must be paid in terms of practice, patience, and persistence—natural ability notwithstanding.

To be able to practice five things everywhere under the heaven constitutes perfect virtue. . . gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.

Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.

The higher you soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.

Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really man it.

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

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.

Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within solitude of his own heart.

This I learned in Auschwitz: There are only two races. The race of the decent and the race of the indecent.