Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Ordinary morality is innate in my view.

Theology is unnecessary.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don’t like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.

It’s like the Wild West, the Internet. There are no rules.

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven’t tried that for a while. Maybe this time it’ll work.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.

This young century will be liberty’s century.

Mandela’s heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.

In the United States, we can do almost anything we want. It’s not like Egypt, where you’re going to get murdered by the security forces.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

The love of economy is the root of all virtue.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

Too many Christians live their lives like slaves – to the devil – because they believe his lies more than they trust God.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.

Fidelity and allegiance sworn to the King is only such a fidelity and obedience as is due to him by the law of the land; for were that faith and allegiance more than what the law requires, we would swear ourselves slaves and the King absolute; whereas, by the law, we are free men, notwithstanding those oaths.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Religion and philosophy are to be preserved distinct. We are not to introduce divine revelations into philosophy, nor philosophical opinions into religion.

We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.

Falsehood is a perennial spring.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

Nature is not human hearted.

You just have to have a simple faith.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.

We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

I’m not the kind of cat that’s going to cut off an ear if I can’t do something.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.