My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.

The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.

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!

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 only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.

This is the thing that I was born to do.

This is the law: The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.

Don’t be ‘a writer’. Be writing.

There is nothing in the world that empowers a human being to overcome external difficulties or internal hardships so much as the awareness that one has a task in life.

To a greater force, and to a better nature, you, free, are subject, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge. Therefore if the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.

What signifies knowing the names, if you know not the nature of things?

Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you do or as fast. There is a time when you didn't know what you know today.

Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.

An inability to stay quiet . . . is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

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.

The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.

Any one thing in creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.

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 have no time for prayer and meditation, you will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.