Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

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.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.

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

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.

What’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.

What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

The upward course of a nation’s history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.

I love the natural world – it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

Music is always a commentary on society.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

The masculine spirit is under assault. It’s obvious.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time – the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

By ancestry, I was born to rule.

Every utopia – let’s just stick with the literary ones – faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don’t fit in?

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Prices are important not because money is considered paramount but because prices are a fast and effective conveyor of information through a vast society in which fragmented knowledge must be coordinated.

See any detour as an opportunity to experience new things.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school, this takes the form of grades. In society, it means money, status, privilege.

I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

People love conspiracy theories.

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

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

I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected.

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

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

I never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.

I was a good football player, and I had a chance to play with some great players.

The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

We’re a diverse society, and I think the TV is doing a great job in showing that we’re all human beings, that we can all get along, that we can all be together, and I think that’s a marvelous thing.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.