Both optimist and pessimist contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.

As I walked out the door to my freedom I knew that, if I did not leave all the anger, hatred and resentment behind, I would remain a prisoner.

Values are related to our emotions, just as we practice physical hygiene to preserve our physical health, we need to observe emotional hygiene to preserve a healthy mind and attitudes.

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.

He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition, youth and age are equally a burden.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.

The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.

The positive thinker see the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieve the impossible.

An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?

To establish true self-esteem, we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.

Have to and get to—both are choices. One is negative and one is positive. Choose the right one and it can change your life.

When civil fury first grew high, and men fell out they knew not why.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

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

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.

When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?

In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

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.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings.

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