Talking down to someone never lifts them up.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg crackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

Misfortune, and recited misfortune especially, may be prolonged to that point where it ceases to excite pity and arouses only irritation.

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

It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not to waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.

Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without.

A fast way to demolish relationships, shatter credibility and disrespect yourself is by not following through when you say you are going to do something.

...the individual ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be...The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self.

I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.

We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.

Understanding a question is half an answer.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

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.

Oh, I offended you with my opinion? You should hear the the ones I keep to myself.

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.

He’s a wonderful talker, who has the art of telling you nothing in a great harangue.