If we tried to sink the past beneath our feet, be sure the future would not stand.

To a greater force, and to a better nature, you, free, are subject, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge. Therefore if the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were a vital one.

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!

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

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

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.

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

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

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

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

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

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.

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it. All that is not a true change will disappear in the future society.

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.

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.

No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bond together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.

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

Why has government been instituted? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason & justice without constraint.

Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

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?

Racism must be opposed by all means that humanity has at its disposal.

We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall be given a square deal.

We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said.

Think lovingly, speak lovingly, act lovingly, and every need shall be supplied.

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.

People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.