In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

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.

All of us are in the same place, each with our own rooms, and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Which is totally different than college, where they manage your schedule for you. In the NBA, you’re on your own.

I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.

Many badly needed goals, like fusion and cancer cure, would be achieved much sooner if we invested more.

Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.

I would probably have more in common with a whale than with a bourgeois married couple employed at worthy institutions that I would wipe from the face of the earth if it was given to me to do so.

All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

After all, every murderer when he kills runs the risk of the most dreadful of deaths, whereas those who kill him risk nothing except promotion.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate… we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot – and it’s only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid, impotent fear.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

Someday, the capitalist system will disappear in the United States, because no social class system has been eternal. One day, class societies will disappear.

I think technology really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.

I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.

Some of my colleagues argue that by further curtailing our Second Amendment rights, they can enhance public safety. Fine, the burden of proof is on them.

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

Music is always a commentary on society.

Every human being is under construction from conception to death.

I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

I wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

What’s dangerous is not to evolve.

The earth was probably born by accident; but, in accordance with one of the most general laws of evolution, scarcely had this accident happened than it was immediately made use of and recast into something naturally directed.

Ladies and gentlemen, god bless America – land of the free, home of the brave.

It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.

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

If you see oppression of the poor, and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded.

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.

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

In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

Books are sharks… because sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.