The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I’m using my own memory, and I’m using my collective memory.

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‚Let us pray.‘ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

I purposely don’t talk about money, because people are already skeptical about TV preachers. But I do say that I want you to be blessed. To me, prosperity is having health, having great children, having peace, good relationships. It’s not about the money.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

The American dream belongs to all of us.

Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

There is no hierarchy of values any more. Real progress is due mainly to human genius, and that’s rare, and usually stems from a real elite, from a hierarchy.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history – revisionist historians is what I like to call them.

Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world. Mine knows that it will not reform it, but its task is perhaps even greater. It consists in preventing the world from destroying itself.

I think the FBI is the premier law enforcement agency in all of human history.

America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.

There are some teams and logos you see, no matter where you are in the world, and you know exactly who they are and what they mean.

We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

I’m not going to stop having problems.

I think when the president of the United States calls for military action, he should do it for a united people, especially when the methods have been so cruel, so explicitly directed at Americans.

We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

In order to speak about all and to all, one has to speak of what all know and of the reality common to us all. The sea, rains, necessity, desire, the struggle against death… these are things that unite us all.

You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors… What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‚Great, I got another one out of the way’… Keep moving forward.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment.

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.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.

But there’s so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That’s where we are. We don’t get our hair caught in it, but that’s the level of primitiveness of where we are. We’re in 1908.

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

The name Muhammad is the most common name in the world. In all the countries around the world – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon – there are more Muhammads than anything else. When I joined the Nation of Islam and became a Muslim, they gave me the most famous name because I was the champ.

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.

When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.

To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.

The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

For 2,500 years, India has never invaded anybody.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

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