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.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

We’re one of the only animals in the world that don’t really think of ourselves as animals, but we are animals, and we must respect our fellow animals.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far – the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We’re obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.

The brain is wider than the sky.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn’t controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

I can move any crowd.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

To lead people walk behind them.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.

I see children, all children, as humanity’s most precious resource, because it will be to them that the care of the planet will always be left.

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God – but to create him.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

I think the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off. Theoretically, it could be re-created on a neural network, but that would be very difficult, as it would require all one’s memories.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

Washington isn’t a city, it’s an abstraction.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

Society therefore is as ancient as the world.

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

I think whenever something is – whenever there’s something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

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.

Surely our job while we’re here on Earth is to learn about the world, not to create parallel universes.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.