There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together: black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young, old; gay, straight; men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance under the same proud flag to this big, bold country that we love. That’s what I see. That’s the America I know!

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

Experience teaches only the teachable.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

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

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

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.

I am not young enough to know everything.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

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.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‚blackness‘ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

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.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Facts are stubborn things.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

The fact is: It’s true what they say about the United States. It is a land of opportunity. It is too various to get bored with it.

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

How wonderful it is to be an American. We have known the best of times and the worst of times.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Education is important because it prepares you for life.