My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

My father was a research scientist in tropical medicine, so I always assumed I would be a scientist, too. I felt that medicine was too vague and inexact, so I chose physics.

Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.

I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.

There’s pros and cons of a big church. Cons is I don’t get to know everybody, I don’t get to go to their ballgame, I don’t get to marry everybody, but the pros are you get all this community, 800 ushers come in to serve, getting there at 7 in the morning on their day off and coming in on Saturday to make all those wafers.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn’t intimidated by them.

My doorman is more important to me than any head of any company. He keeps us safe.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.

You’re morally tainted if you don’t treat both the accuser and the accused with fairness and with respect, and with due process.

When we value correct principles, we have truth – a knowledge of things as they are.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Development of outlook naturally begins with a respect for God… Reverence to God and reverence for one’s neighbor and reverence for oneself as a servant of God.

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

I advocate that every woman be a part of a circle, and a circle that meets at least once a month, or if you can’t do that, once every two months or every four months.

In a long meter hymn, a singer – they call it ‚lays out a line.‘ And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can’t wedge a pin between it.

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings – to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

There are disasters that happen – Hurricane Harvey came up, and you had people self-organizing through the community and getting in boats and driving around rescuing people coordinated ad hoc through this network. That’s not a media function.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

Integrity has no need of rules.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

I hold the door for the ladies – I’m a gent.

Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.

Lettin‘ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier ‚n puttin‘ it back in.

I love being a part of the country-music community.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

I know why we’re strong. I know why we have held together; I know why we are united: it’s because there’s always been a growing middle class.

The writing is important, but the way you say the line and the pause you give it, the facial expression – all of that is very important.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.

It’s very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

The outpouring of support from millions of people in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti has been impressive.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

I don’t know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It’s also changing how we’re telling stories.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

I have such respect for ‚Democracy Now!‘

I was always interested in choreography – in making people think and feel something.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.