The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

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.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to allow his vision wherever it takes him.

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.

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.

I could not understand how any man could be so brutalized as to claim the right to dispose of the lives of others, nor how any man could be so lacking in self-esteem as to grant to others the right to dispose of his life.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

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.

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

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

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Life is short. Time is fast. No replay, no rewind. Enjoy every moment as it comes.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me.

The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.

In all Chaos there is a Cosmos, In all Disorder a secret Order.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

We do not do what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are—that is a fact.

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

Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.

Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

You and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions.

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.

I never encounter anything except my responsibility.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.