To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism… The one absolutely certain way of brining this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.

The overwhelming importance of the atmosphere means that there are no longer any frontiers to defend against pollution, attack, or propaganda. It means, further, that only by a deep patriotic devotion to one’s country can there be a hope of the kind of protection of the whole planet, which is necessary for the survival of the people of other countries.

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.

Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

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.

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 Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.

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.

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.

Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?

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.

Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.

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.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

It does not take a majority of prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

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.

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.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

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

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.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Liberty only survives when it is defended.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot. Men are no superior by reason of the accidents of race and color. The are superior who have the best heart—the best brain.

No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they are going to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.

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.

They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.

We can secure other people’s approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

If you can allow yourself to trust those little movements round your gut that tell you when something is interesting or exciting, they will tell you where to go.

Emotions are inherent in your nature, but their content is dictated by your mind.

You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

It is of particular value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

A friend is as it were a second self.