I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if they knew they were slaves.

No one returns with good will to the place which has done him a mischief.

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

I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

There are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.

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

Ignorance never settle a question.

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.

Unless you believe you will not understand.

Do not hide your faith and your beliefs under a bushel basket, especially in this world that seems to have gone mad with political correctness.

Religion is a great force—the only real motive force in the world; but what you fellows don't understand is that you must get a man through his own religion and not through yours.

Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen — not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

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.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

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

Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.

Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within solitude of his own heart.

Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.

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.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

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 greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Either you will control your government, or government will control you.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they are going to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.

The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

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.

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.

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

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.

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.

You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

All limitations are self-imposed.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

I’m fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I’d like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don’t like being alone because they truly don’t like themselves, but I love me.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

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.