If we all can persevere, if we can in every land and office look beyond our own shores and ambitions, then surely the age will dawn in which the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

It is stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts prosecution.

Nothing leads so straight to futility as literary ambitions without systematic knowledge.

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

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

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

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.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

I could not understand how any man could be so brutalized as to claim the right to dispose of the lives of others, nor how any man could be so lacking in self-esteem as to grant to others the right to dispose of his life.

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!

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

True success, true wealth, does not come out of the barrel of a gun.

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.

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.

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

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.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.

Half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.

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

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

Gentleness is strength under control. It is the ability to stay calm, no matter what happens.

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

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

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

True strength lies in gentleness.