There is no such thing as part freedom.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

Evil is whatever distracts.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

What goes up must come down.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

I’ve said very clearly, including in a State of the Union address, that I’m against ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and that we’re going to end this policy.

We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.

By very conservative estimates, Turkish repression of Kurds in the 1990s falls in the category of Kosovo. It peaked in the early 1990s; one index is the flight of more than a million Kurds from the countryside to the unofficial Kurdish capital, Diyarbakir, from 1990 to 1994, as the Turkish army was devastating the countryside.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.

Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.

When you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it’s again not people who are intrinsically evil.

I don’t even call them fans. I don’t like that. They’re literally just a part of my life; they’re a part of my family. I don’t think of them as on a lower level than me. I don’t think I’m anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they’re basically all of my siblings.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

If a man loses his reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all of life.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

And we have done more in the two and a half years that I’ve been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it’s ending ‚don’t ask, don’t tell,‘ making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.

I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

Man’s true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

The United States of America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins. The killers will fail, and the Iraqi people will live in freedom.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

Our strategic dialogue with China can both protect American interests and uphold our principles, provided we are honest about our differences on human rights and other issues and provided we use a mix of targeted incentives and sanctions to narrow these differences.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

I don’t think that faith, whatever you’re being faithful about, really can be scientifically explained. And I don’t want to explain this whole life business through truth, science. There’s so much mystery. There’s so much awe.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.

Our life is made by the death of others.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.