I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

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

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

For more than four decades, the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant – Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom, exploited their wealth, murdered opponents at home and abroad, and terrorized innocent people around the world – including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.

Humanity, you never had it to begin with.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

To be ashamed of one’s immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.

No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that, everyone’s had enough of me to last a month.

A consistent anarchist must oppose private ownership of the means of production, and the wage-slavery which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

Observe all men, thyself most.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror – and America is honored to be their friend.

Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

In the final choice a soldier’s pack is not so heavy as a prisoner’s chains.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

I can be jubilant one moment and pensive the next, and a cloud could go by and make that happen.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

We can’t equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

There is no birth of consciousness without pain.

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.

For me, genres are a way for people to easily categorize music. But it doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to limit you.

We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and Freedom will prevail.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

Cassius Clay is a name that white people gave to my slave master. Now that I am free, that I don’t belong anymore to anyone, that I’m not a slave anymore, I gave back their white name, and I chose a beautiful African one.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

It’s like the Wild West, the Internet. There are no rules.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.