I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

For ‚Hercules,‘ I went for the demigod look: big and mean. When you’re playing a character like the son of Zeus, you only get one shot.

All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart.

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

In God’s family, there are no outsiders, no enemies.

Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

There are a lot of groups that feel a little bit strange around me, because I am inclusive.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Racism is real in this country.

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.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

To love someone means to see him as God intended him.

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.

I think that the idea of having a different approach to every single one of my albums is so exciting to me. I never want to make the same record twice. Why do it? What’s the point?

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

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite.

The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.

I think that there’s no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.

I’ve reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything to change events anyway.

We still have many neighborhoods that are racially identified. We still have many schools that even though the days of state-enforced segregation are gone, segregation because of geographical boundaries remains.

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

I always like to create things that get attention. It used to be a problem when I wasn’t famous. Now, I can do whatever I want and people have to accept it.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

So the bodhisattva saves all beings, not by preaching sermons to them, but by showing them that they are delivered, they are liberated, by the act of not being able to stop changing.

My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t think about it, I just have it.

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

Even after Independence, we have had to face the poison of casteism and communalism. How long these evils will continue? Whom does it benefit?

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Keep in mind that no matter how perfectly you get your life in order, you will never be rid of all your problems. Problems are a way of life, always have been, always will be. But how you elect to view those problems is all up to you.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Here in America, we don’t let our differences tear us apart. Not here. Because we know that our greatness comes from when we appreciate each other’s strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other, because in this country, it’s never been each person for themselves. No, we’re all in this together. We always have been.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

It’s not morbid to talk about death. Most people don’t worry about death, they worry about a bad death.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

When you love and accept yourself, when you know who really cares about you, and when you learn from your mistakes, then you stop caring about what people who don’t know you think.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

It is true that classical libertarian thought is opposed to state intervention in social life, as a consequence of deeper assumptions about the human need for liberty, diversity, and free association.

We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

I love making new friends and I respect people for a lot of different reasons.