And we have done more in the two and a half years that I’ve been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it’s ending ‚don’t ask, don’t tell,‘ making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.

Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.

China has to go along with world trends. That’s democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

In almost every area of human endeavor, the practice improves over time. That hasn’t been the case for teaching.

There is not Communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy.

The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.

We must make it clear that a platform of ‚I hate gay men and women‘ is not a way to become president of the United States.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

Men are only as good as their technical development allows them to be.

I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.

We should not say that one man’s hour is worth another man’s hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing: he is at the most time’s carcass.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying ‚we support you‘ and then walking away. We won’t be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That’s why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn’t enough. That’s why we have to keep striking.

For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too.

Wall Street apparently takes and then forgets, and then comes after the guns of law-abiding American citizens and small businesses.

I used to always fight for human rights. I still fight for Leonard Peltier, who’s spent 35 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-racism.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

Mediocre theoretical physicists make no progress. They spend all their time understanding other people’s progress.

We don’t want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful – not only to that member of the community but the entire community.

A jug fills drop by drop.

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.

I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.

Four legs good, two legs bad.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.

One thing I’ve tried to never do is make wish lists. I try to have a very steppingstone mentality about this whole thing, where as soon as you make one step you visualize the next step, not five steps ahead.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

I wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

Africa will thrive.

We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them.

The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

People tell me that they are so hopeful when they see me and other children ‚school-striking,‘ and they say, ‚Oh the children are going to save us.‘ But no, we aren’t. We are too young to be able to do that. We don’t have time to wait for us to grow up and fix this in the future.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It is harmful.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.