I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic.

Never was it given to mortal man – To lie so boldly as we women can.

Not one person can make or break what I’m doing, except me or God.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

Where there is no opposition to evil, it multiplies.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

We have the best government that money can buy.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

The world is so unpredictable. Things happen suddenly, unexpectedly. We want to feel we are in control of our own existence. In some ways we are, in some ways we’re not. We are ruled by the forces of chance and coincidence.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

No one has done a study on this, as far as I can tell, but I think Facebook might be the first place where a large number of people have come out. We didn’t create that – society was generally ready for that. I think this is just part of the general trend that we talked about, about society being more open, and I think that’s good.

It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy – well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m President, I never will.

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

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.

The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.

The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.

Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

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

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

You listen to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane before they found their voice, they sounded different. And when you listen to them after they found their voice on their instruments, they sound more confident and in control. Artists have that, too.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Character is power.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

I thought I couldn’t make a difference because I was too small.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.

It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper.

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.

I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered. I feed my daughter almost exclusively organic food.

I think I’m like most people – we fear the unknown and the things that have yet to come to pass, which are the very things that don’t deserve to be feared. When you give God complete control, it’s very hard not to be fearless.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative, it starts to affect our creative juices.

Because of my parents‘ love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia – first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.