I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.

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

True success, true wealth, does not come out of the barrel of a gun.

No man on earth is truly free. All are slaves of money or necessity. Public opinion or fear of prosecution forces each one, against his conscience, to conform.

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.

If we all can persevere, if we can in every land and office look beyond our own shores and ambitions, then surely the age will dawn in which the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.

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

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

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

The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.

You find out the necessity of Liberty as you find out the necessity of air—by not having enough of it.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For Amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

This is the thing that I was born to do.

Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better than they otherwise would.

A leader's greatness is found in bringing out greatness in others.

I had long since taught myself to follow the inner voice. I delighted in submitting to it. To act against it would be difficult and painful to me.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

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

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

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary rule of another man.

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

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

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

True strength lies in gentleness.

Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.

It cannot be your duty to do anything that is beyond your reach or your strength at the moment. It cannot be your duty to do anything that sacrifices your own integrity or your own spiritual development.

So it is more useful to watch a man in time of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask it torn off, reality remains.

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