What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

If we say it long enough eventually we’re going to reap a harvest. We’re going to get exactly what we’re saying.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

My life is a struggle.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

If you get knocked down – setbacks in life, like applying for a job if they don’t hire you – keep trying, keep getting up, keep doing it.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

The future will be better tomorrow.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

There are only two forces that unite men – fear and interest.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Racial prejudice, anti-Semitism, or hatred of anyone with different beliefs has no place in the human mind or heart.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

Earth might one day soon resemble the planet Venus.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

Sometimes negative news does come out, but it is often exaggerated and manipulated to spread scandal. Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out.

In a time not distant, it will be possible to flash any image formed in thought on a screen and render it visible at any place desired. The perfection of this means of reading thought will create a revolution for the better in all our social relations.

There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.

I had to get rich so I could sing like I was poor again.

There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‚This is what I asked for.‘

To our brothers in Latin America and the world, we must convey that the Cuban people will overcome.

Why there is one body in our System qualified to give light and heat to all the rest, I know no reason but because the Author of the System thought it convenient; and why there is but one body of this kind, I know no reason, but because one was sufficient to warm and enlighten all the rest.

There is nothing impossible to him who will try.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

I’m not a good storm-outer… because I forget stuff.

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

People look to time in expectation that it will eventually make them happy, but you cannot find true happiness by looking toward the future.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

Morality arose largely as an empirical defence of the individual and society. Ever since intelligent beings began to be in contact, and consequently in friction, they have felt the need to guard themselves against each other’s encroachments.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

He who has faith has… an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well – even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

The Middle East is hopeful. There’s hope there.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

The American dream belongs to all of us.

From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.

Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.