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.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.

I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.

We reached a high point in my opinion with the passage of the civil rights legislation and Martin Luther King’s success and the crusade of others. I think we kind of breathed a sigh of relief as if we had achieved the end of racial discrimination or white supremacy.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

Once you feel loved by the universe, you’re already accepted, and you’re not really concerned about offending people.

I’m not looking to exclude people, I’m looking to include them.

I know people said I wasn’t selling out in America, but that was entirely untrue. We sold out all over the world, and every night I looked out into the fans and those front rows that you’re talking about, the tears, the honesty, the inability to not be completely overjoyed because they felt accepted.

An index is a great leveller.

I love imperfections.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.

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.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

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

We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

Man, all lives matter.

What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce.

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

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

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.

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.

I’ve said very clearly, including in a State of the Union address, that I’m against ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and that we’re going to end this policy.

We’ve come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

Some of the most moving experiences I’ve had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

Nothing I can say or devise, and nothing anybody else can say or devise, is going to be perfect.

If we do not lift up women and families, everyone will fall short.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

I didn’t know any gay people in my childhood.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

We are all alike, on the inside.

A man has a tendency to accept you the way you are, while most women immediately start to pick flaws and want to change you.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

China has many successful entrepreneurs and business people. I hope that more people of insight will put their talents to work to improve the lives of poor people in China and around the world, and seek solutions for them.

I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.

There’s always going to be people who don’t understand or accept the united science, and I will just ignore them, as I’m only acting and communicating on the science.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

I believe the scripture says that being gay is a sin.

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

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