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

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

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

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

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.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act. . . . Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon the definition of liberty.

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

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

It is a socialist idea making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

Racial discrimination is not a permissible solution... that can only weaken the principle of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Equal Protection Clause.

No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

Some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

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

To change your mind and to follow him who sets you straight is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.

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

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly two be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

I rebel; therefore I exist.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

The overwhelming importance of the atmosphere means that there are no longer any frontiers to defend against pollution, attack, or propaganda. It means, further, that only by a deep patriotic devotion to one’s country can there be a hope of the kind of protection of the whole planet, which is necessary for the survival of the people of other countries.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

Freedom ultimately means the right of the other people to do things you don’t approve of.

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.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.