We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.

He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."

With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarters, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

Fortunately psychoanalysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.

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.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than others their opinions more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

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

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.

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare—I have no use for him, either.

There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own.

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.

I had long since taught myself to follow the inner voice. I delighted in submitting to it. To act against it would be difficult and painful to me.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.

Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.

Personal growth is not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning old limits.

Meaningful silence is better than meaningless words.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.

We doctors know a hopeless case if—listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

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

The better you are at communicating negotiating, and handling your fear of rejection, the easier life is.

We don't point a pistol at our own forehead. That is not the way to conduct negotiations.

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

You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.

Religion is a great force—the only real motive force in the world; but what you fellows don't understand is that you must get a man through his own religion and not through yours.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

Be grateful for your life, every detail of it, and your face will come to shine like a sun, and everyone who sees it will be made glad and peaceful.

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.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.

Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.

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.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

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.

If you compromise your own conscience, you will weaken your conscience. Soon your conscience will fail to guide you and you never will have real wealth based on peace of mind.

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.