Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

I think that we have opportunities all around us – sometimes we just don’t recognize them.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

We’ve been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can’t do – about what is impossible.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.

I believe that God’s dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don’t mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you’re planted. But I don’t have the mindset that money is a bad thing.

One thing I’ve tried to never do is make wish lists. I try to have a very steppingstone mentality about this whole thing, where as soon as you make one step you visualize the next step, not five steps ahead.

I’m not denyin‘ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ‚em to match the men.

Saints can be happy under every circumstance.

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we’re going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it’s our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it’s because we’re focused on ourselves!

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.

The real power of the Buddha was that he had so much love. He saw people trapped in their notions of small separate self, feeling guilty or proud of that self, and he offered revolutionary teachings that resounded like a lion’s roar, like a great rising tide, helping people to wake up and break free from the prison of ignorance.

If I were a Negro, I’d be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I’d rather go down with my flag flying. If you’re weak or crippled, or you can’t speak out or fight back in some way, then people don’t hesitate to treat you badly.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.

Fear is real, but so is love.

Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness.

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

You need to think outside the box. You need to think differently if you want to sustain what, for me, is my peak performance: the very best that I can achieve as an athlete every day.

God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Our constitution is a ray of hope: H for harmony, O for Opportunity, P for people’s participation and E for equality.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

Belief creates the actual fact.

I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together: black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young, old; gay, straight; men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance under the same proud flag to this big, bold country that we love. That’s what I see. That’s the America I know!

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.

I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty, my passion.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

Getting rich is about fun. It’s a game, and you have to treat it that way.

It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.

As an athlete, you’d better laugh at yourself when you slip in the mud.

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.

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

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.

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.

Women feel empowered when they can do the things that are supposed to be only for men, you know? It breaks boundaries, it’s liberating, and it’s empowering when you feel like, ‚Well, I can do that, too.‘

More law, less justice.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

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.

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

All of our problems start in our minds.

I am not young but I feel young. The day I feel old, I will go to bed and stay there. J’aime la vie! I feel that to live is a wonderful thing.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

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