We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

An index is a great leveller.

When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights.

And if a person is religious, I think it’s good, it helps you a bit. But if you’re not, at least you can have the sense that there is a condition inside you which looks at the stars with amazement and awe.

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

When I was 8, I thought I was Harrison Ford, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Elvis, and Chuck Norris all at once.

It’s always going to be a fight for anyone who isn’t an older white man. I want to fight for anyone who doesn’t have a fight.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

I don’t think even ungodly people realize what a society would be like that had no godly influence at all.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many ‚bads‘ – bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even ‚bad‘ white males. Only, when you write about ‚bad‘ white males, they don’t complain about it. And need I say that there are ‚good‘ blacks, ‚good‘ homosexuals and ‚good‘ women?

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.

If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.

My focus is my art, and that’s what I love to do. I have to be really passionate in order to do something. I’ve turned down many things that I just didn’t believe in.

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

I just want to lobby for God.

I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.

I don’t really care how the Patriots are perceived, truthfully. I really don’t. I really don’t. Look, if you’re a fan of our team, you root for us, you believe in our team, and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not a fan of us, you have a different opinion.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

Our faith is released as we say, pray and do the Word.

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

I have already demonstrated, by crucial tests, the practicability of signaling by my system from one to any other point of the globe, no matter how remote, and I shall soon convert the disbelievers.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people. The image of the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus‘ famous poem. She lifts her lamp and welcomes people to the golden shore, where they will not experience prejudice because of the color of their skin, the religious faith that they follow.

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

Don’t be misled by those who claim God doesn’t exist, because He does.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

We are all geniuses up to the age of ten.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

I don’t believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.

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.

To be Catholic is the only way of being fully and utterly Christian.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

When you talk about black entrepreneurship, you’re talking about addressing the foundation of what’s going on with our people when we don’t have any financial power. Our basic needs aren’t being met in a lot of cases, so there’s no way we’re going to be able to tap into our potential until we address those bottom-level base needs.

I’m always disappointed when people don’t live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor.