The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.
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The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
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.
Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.
Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.
As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.
Our task must be to free ourselves…by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.
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!
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.
Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.
What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
I did not seek greatness. I only sought to fulfill my duties.
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.
It is a socialist idea making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.
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.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment
Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Understanding a question is half an answer.
The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
