I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

No one but a fool is always right.

A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s as natural to me as breathing.

I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

A pessimist? That’s a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it’s a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

No boxer in the history of boxing has had Parkinson’s. There’s no injury in my brain that suggests that the illness came from boxing.

I would like to express the thoughts of a man who, having finally penetrated the partitions and ceilings of little countries, little coteries, little sects, rises above all these categories and finds himself a child and citizen of the Earth.

I think that cancer is a life form that exists out there, and it exists in us. I think even the concept of healing is a spiritual principle that we have to really look at. I think the word itself is something we ought to get rid of, because it implies that there is illness – that there is something wrong.

What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

People say maybe we have a soul and chimpanzees don’t. I feel that it’s quite possible that if we have souls, chimpanzees have souls as well.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

I don’t know which will go first – rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.

Europe became rich because it exploited Africa; and the Africans know that.

Libraries raised me.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

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

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world.

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

A teacher should have a creative mind.

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

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

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

What I have is a malevolent curiosity. That’s what drives my need to write and what probably leads me to look at things a little askew. I do tend to take a different perspective from most people.

You don’t go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.

There is something about building up a comradeship – that I still believe is the greatest of all feats – and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

To a profound pessimist about life, being in danger is not depressing.

See, that’s why Barack’s running: to end the war in Iraq responsibly – to build an economy that lifts every family, to make sure health care is available for every American – and to make sure that every child in this nation has a world-class education all the way from preschool to college.

Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.