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 most obvious characteristic of science is its application: the fact that, as a consequence of science, one has a power to do things. And the effect this power has had need hardly be mentioned. The whole industrial revolution would almost have been impossible without the development of science.

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

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.

We must always remember that the Chinese revolution was not a peasant’s revolution, but one of the extreme Right.

I tend not to look back and dwell on a project once it is finished.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.

You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

Most foreign policies that history has marked highly, in whatever country, have been originated by leaders who were opposed by experts.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs… I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you’d see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans.

In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

If a secret history of books could be written, and the author’s private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.

The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.

The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.

Love to everybody who is out there progressing and taking things to the next level.

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn’t get there.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.

I’d read up on the history of our country and I’d become fascinated with the story of the Alamo. To me it represented the fight for freedom, not just in America, but in all countries.

I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.

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.

In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

In a higher phase of communist society… only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

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

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

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

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.

While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I’m no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.

I think it speaks of all women having those few special things that make them feel feminine. And so when I was a little girl, I would associate Guerlain with that.

What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.

Shakespeare – I was very influenced – still am – by Shakespeare. I couldn’t believe that a white man in the 16th century could so know my heart.

I can’t imagine what it is like to be raised in a society where their only statues that exist are to you and your father.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

We don’t have to let extremists define us.

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.

Nixon was no more a saint than he was a great president.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger’s as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

There were plenty of other hominids, but they disappeared, probably because humans exterminated them, but nobody knows for sure.

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.

In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry ‚Native passes‘ issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.

We live in a bewildering world.