Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg crackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men—the other 999 follow women.

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

A good joke is the one ultimate and sacred thing which cannot be criticized.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

The generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

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.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions but follows religiously the new.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.

Fundamentally, there are only to ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion — the technique of the army and the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation — the technique of the marketplace.

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.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.