Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I groan daily under a body of sin and corruption. Oh for the time when I shall drop this flesh, and be free from sin!

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.

People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

Before all else, be armed.

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?

I have discovered that just because we grow weaker physically as we age, it doesn’t mean that we must grow weaker spiritually.

You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it’s open season on anybody who stutters.

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

The highly functional infrastructure that surrounds us, particularly in the West, is a gift from our ancestors: the comparatively uncorrupt political and economic systems, the technology, the wealth, the lifespan, the freedom, the luxury, and the opportunity.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

Fortunately, we have help from the media. I have to say this: I’m very grateful for the support and kindness that we’ve gotten. People have respected their privacy and in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband’s policies or what have you, they care about children and that’s been good to see.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch nonfear, you are free.

Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.

People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favor of the weak, of the despised.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

The dinosaurs aren’t remembered for much more than their bones. When humanity’s gone, what do we give to this little planet that we’re on, and what could we do collectively, removing the pride?

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Put your leaders in stressful scenarios. Make them figure out solutions under pressure. See if you can make them frustrated, angry, and flustered, and then demand decisive leadership from them. They will be challenged at first, but they will get better over time.

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man’s humanity to man.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation – and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

For me, it’s about becoming a mogul, owning my own projects, and establishing myself as a funding producer. That’s what’s big to me. The movies and all that stuff are great, but the fact that I’m in a position to do what I want to do, however I want to do it and when I want to do it is bigger.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.