We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

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.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you’re in a business with all men.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Women are considered deep – why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the Earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

My father had a dairy farm. He employed three black families and one white family, and I used to play with black children.

I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

It’s not a slam at you when people are rude, it’s a slam at the people they’ve met before.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

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

We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

Still and all, why bother? Here’s my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepts blacks in the top ten percent of students, but at MIT this puts them in the bottom ten percent of the class.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

I’ve still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, ‚You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.‘

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

We don’t want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

Nothing can be by itself alone, no one can be by himself or herself alone, everyone has to inter-be with every one else. That is why, when you look outside, around you, you can see yourself.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

Defending peace is the duty of all.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

I’ve been to those places where it’s ‚poor, pitiful me.‘

I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

You’ve got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.

It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I’m talking to them.

I don’t understand why or how we can bully each other.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.

The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

A saint is tolerant and is attentive to the pleadings of other human beings, not only to spoken messages but to unspoken messages as well.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

My aim is to create a happy society with genuine friendship. Friendship between Tibetan and Chinese peoples is very essential.

As I’ve said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hopes for Iraqis‘ future.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up – or else we all go down.

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

At the heart of every being lies creation’s dream of a principle that will one day give organic form to its fragmented treasures. God is unity.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.