I think there are a whole host of things that are civil rights, and then there are other things – such as traditional marriage – that, I think, express a community’s concern and regard for a particular institution.

We’re so immaturely cynical as a culture. We’re not wise enough to look at an institution like marriage and to really things about what it means and what it signifies. It signifies a place where people can tie the ropes of their lives together so that they’re stronger. It signifies a place where people can tell the truth to one another.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

No other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our economy or our military might – but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

All great peoples are conservative.

When in doubt tell the truth.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

It’s like a muscle – if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don’t keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

I grew up in the South under segregation. So, I know what terrorism feels like – when your father could be taken out in the middle of the night and lynched just because he didn’t look like he was in an obeying frame of mind when a white person said something he must do. I mean, that’s terrorism, too.

When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.

Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed.

There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.

We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter – and to write it in the books of law.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.

In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion-, and even nation-centred cultures.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values and your personal style.

I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

To summarize, draft resistance can make use of the inegalitarian nature of American society as a technique for increasing the cost of American aggression, and it threatens values that are important to those in a decision-making position.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

People must have righteous principals in the first, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.