Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words

Common sense is the very antipodes of science.

Look at the stars and not down at your own feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature—daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it—rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?

People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.

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

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

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.

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.

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

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

Man lives in a world of surmise, of mystery, of uncertainties.

Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.

We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.

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."