Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what’s causing us to do what we do.

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles – the oppression of tyranny – to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.

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.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

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

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

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.

Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.

Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

I’m an introvert somewhat. There could be a room full of people, I’ll go stand in the corner.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

To me, my house is always recreating what I lost in youth.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Hair is about when you’re younger. I am my hair.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable – and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

Some Christians feel guilty when they are doing something that isn’t ‚spiritual.‘ Somehow or another, they feel the need to hurry through the grocery store, dash through the house cleaning, and rush through all the daily aspects of life that seem irrelevant to their faith.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

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

The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be.

We are a nation founded as a rebuke to tyranny. A nation of revolutionaries who refused sovereign reign from afar. Hear me – we’re a nation that says give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. A nation built on our differences, guided by the belief that we’re all created equal.

It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.

Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

The truth is, somebody is always talking about you, so you have to let it go… if it’s not a part of your God-given destiny.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.