Maybe every city has a unique sensibility, but we don’t have names for what they are or haven’t identified them all. We can’t pinpoint exactly what makes each city’s people unique yet.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

I think the whole stigma of ‚black movies‘ is slowly being lost. When you look at movies like ’12 Years A Slave,‘ to ‚The Butler,‘ to ‚The Best Man,‘ to ‚Ride Along,‘ to even ‚Think Like a Man‘ from last year – these movies are just good movies.

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.

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it’s beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.

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

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

I think unconscious bias is one of the hardest things to get at.

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

Like it or not, there are a lot of dance teachers in this country who respect me, whether they personally like me or not.

Don’t say I hate institutionalised religion – rather than saying I hate those things, which I do not, what I’m saying is that perhaps there is a way of opening more doors, rather than closing so many.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

Sometimes a nickname is used instead of the real name. But a nickname may offend either the one named or the parents who gave the name.

History shows us that in times of people feeling like they are in need of some sort of rebellion or protests, the artists rise because the poetry we create about pain and its relationship to culture in the world begins to soothe and heal people who are feeling confused or afraid.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

The only person who ever called me Paul was my father, so I always associate it with doing something wrong, you know. So, you know, occasionally, people will come up to me on the street and try to, you know, ingratiate themselves and call me Paul. I don’t like it, actually.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Lady Gaga is my name. If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

War is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.

I can’t disguise myself with a wig and dark glasses – the wheelchair gives me away.

This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

London is a roost for every bird.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

I live in a crazy time.

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

While victimhood in America is exalted, I don’t think our veterans should join those ranks.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

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.

There was a while when I was feeling like, ‚Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this‘.

Here in America, we don’t let our differences tear us apart. Not here. Because we know that our greatness comes from when we appreciate each other’s strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other, because in this country, it’s never been each person for themselves. No, we’re all in this together. We always have been.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I hate being called an ‚icon.‘ I just don’t like it. That’s all there is to it.

I have this feeling that the world is not in balance. And people are afraid, but we’re also starting to be really brave.

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.

For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first.

I am what I am. A fighter.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

I haven’t changed at all. I’m the same as when I was 11.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

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.

Compton got such a legacy in hip-hop.

We have an epidemic of insecure people in our society today.

Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.