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.

If a great opportunity opens itself up, I would love to be involved… or star in a movie.

I totally disagree with the view that the Tibet struggle will die, and there will be no hope for Tibet, after the Dalai Lama passes away.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

The highly functional infrastructure that surrounds us, particularly in the West, is a gift from our ancestors: the comparatively uncorrupt political and economic systems, the technology, the wealth, the lifespan, the freedom, the luxury, and the opportunity.

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.

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.

A lot of people, because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion, think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed, to be the repository of other people’s hope.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

I’m telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

This healthy eating stuff, it’s here to stay, and we now have everything we need to seize the opportunity and give all our kids the healthy futures they so richly deserve.

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put – without delay, and with tenderness – back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

If you want to appeal to everyone, you can’t do a world tour and expect black people to show up at every date – when you’re in Australia, when you’re in Dubai, when you’re in Indonesia.

At the end of the day, I pray for the best.

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.

The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

Only the educated are free.

Each time we cooperate with God, we take one more giant step forward. Because when God asks us to change, it means that He always has something better to give us – more freedom, greater joy, and greater blessings.

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

I have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise.

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.

While we may lose heart, we never have to lose hope.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

People tell me that they are so hopeful when they see me and other children ‚school-striking,‘ and they say, ‚Oh the children are going to save us.‘ But no, we aren’t. We are too young to be able to do that. We don’t have time to wait for us to grow up and fix this in the future.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

Over the years, I had nurtured the hope to be able to fly; to handle a machine as it rose higher and higher in the stratosphere was my dearest dream.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

People have more freedom to bring more of their personal qualities into the role they play once they have established themselves and their competence is no longer in question. But this is always within limits.

When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

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.

Mandela’s heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

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

I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

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

There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.

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.

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters, a president who truly believes in the vision that our Founders put forth all those years ago that we are all created equal, each a beloved part of the great American story.