Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.

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

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”

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.

Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot. Men are no superior by reason of the accidents of race and color. The are superior who have the best heart—the best brain.

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

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

Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?

A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes…loses its moral rights to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to allow his vision wherever it takes him.

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

At the end of the day, we can endure more than we think we can.

You must try to observe yourself more and more objectively, to look at everything in yourself as though another person.

Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.

You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.

To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.