When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything.

People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.

The liar is no better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

No man will ever bring out the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

True success, true wealth, does not come out of the barrel of a gun.

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.

I did not seek greatness. I only sought to fulfill my duties.

You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.

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.

For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.

Liberty only survives when it is defended.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

Never cross a man, not afraid to die.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

Racial discrimination is not a permissible solution... that can only weaken the principle of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Equal Protection Clause.

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

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

To change your mind and to follow him who sets you straight is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

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.

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Freedom ultimately means the right of the other people to do things you don’t approve of.

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.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

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.

The true profession of a man is to find his way to himself.

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

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.

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

If you compromise your own conscience, you will weaken your conscience. Soon your conscience will fail to guide you and you never will have real wealth based on peace of mind.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.

Let us affirm what seems to be the truth, that, whether one is or is not, one and the others in relation to themselves and one another, all of them, in every way, are and are not, and appear to be and appear not to be.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.