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.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

You don’t have to turn on the TV set. You don’t have to work on the Internet. It’s up to you.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

I’ve said very clearly, including in a State of the Union address, that I’m against ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and that we’re going to end this policy.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

If I were a Negro, I’d be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I’d rather go down with my flag flying. If you’re weak or crippled, or you can’t speak out or fight back in some way, then people don’t hesitate to treat you badly.

I thought I would try to be gay for a while, but I’m just more sexually attracted to women. But I’m really glad that I found a few gay friends, because it totally saved me from becoming a monk or something.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

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.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

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.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

Why, if someone is good in one field can they not be accepted or given the slightest opportunity to express and be creative in other fields?

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?

From 1945 to 1974, the Western world – including America – was more socialistic than capitalistic, more pro-labor than pro-business.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.

America – a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

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.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

Each time we cooperate with God, we take one more giant step forward. Because when God asks us to change, it means that He always has something better to give us – more freedom, greater joy, and greater blessings.

We’ve got to keep our eye on what’s happening with Russia and North Korea. We cannot lose sight of domestic policy, either. Healthcare. Immigration. Climate change.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Oh yes, there’s lots of great food in America. But the fast food is about as destructive and evil as it gets. It celebrates a mentality of sloth, convenience, and a cheerful embrace of food we know is hurting us.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

It is right to give every man his due.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.

When it’s your time, it is your time.

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

Even in this globalised world, London is still the standard for our times. The city has embraced the world’s diversity and represents the finest in human achievements.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

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.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down .

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

Everyone got kind of crazy with me mentioning I was in love with a woman.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.