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

In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

The French are so into themselves that they don’t even notice you.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

People like to talk about war.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.

I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic.

We live in ugly times.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

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.

My heart aches for America and its deceived people.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

Babylon is everywhere. You have wrong and you have right. Wrong is what we call Babylon, wrong things. That is what Babylon is to me. I could have born in England, I could have born in America, it make no difference where me born, because there is Babylon everywhere.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

Developing nations want to become developed nations.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it – I think that’s important.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I’m going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I’m going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

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.

A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

We live in a bewildering world.

If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

When we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. Then, when there’s a period of waiting or we hit a plateau, we find out how committed we really are and whether we’re going to see things through to the finish or quit.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.

The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

The masculine spirit is under assault. It’s obvious.

Each day brings opportunity for decisions for eternity.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

When written in Chinese, the word ‚crisis‘ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.