Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

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.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

I believe in a passion for inclusion.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

No one wants advice – only corroboration.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.

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.

Hong Kong is a wonderful, mixed-up town where you’ve got great food and adventure. First and foremost, it’s a great place to experience China in a relatively accessible way.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

Although the big word on the left is ‚compassion,‘ the big agenda on the left is dependency.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone.

Someday, the capitalist system will disappear in the United States, because no social class system has been eternal. One day, class societies will disappear.

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.

I get that racism exists, but it’s not a catalyst for my content. I don’t need to talk about race to have material. My style of comedy is more self-deprecating. I think that makes me more relatable. When you deal with ‚topics‘ – race, white versus black – you’re not separating from the pack. You’re doing what everybody else is doing.

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.

As much as I’m a black person from America, I’m a black person from Africa, too.

Here’s the thing. We do a movie with a predominantly black cast, and it’s put in a category of being a black film. When other movies are done with a predominantly white cast, we don’t call them a white film. I’m trying to remove the stigma off things they call black films.

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

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.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests.

We boil at different degrees.

Neither the Christian attitude of love for all mankind nor humane hopes for an organized society must cause us to forget that the ‚human stratum‘ may not be homogeneous.

Everybody’s got that split between the beautiful and fragile, the hard and the dark.

People don’t want drama 365 days a year. I’m a sense of relief; it’s my job to take your mind off what’s bad for that brief second you’re in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I’m doing.

The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a freelance.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

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.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

I’m asking myself, ‚What do my girls, what do all our children deserve in their president? What kind of a president do we want for them?‘ Well, to start with, I think we want someone who is a unifying force in this country: someone who sees our differences not as a threat, but as a blessing.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

You are remembered for the rules you break.