We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone, and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone – except God.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

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

Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, ‚Sexiest Man Alive,‘ I’m honestly going, ‚Thank you. Right on.‘ For me, it’s never canceled out anything, it’s never made me go, ‚Does this make me less talented of an actor?‘

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

Man gives you the award but God gives you the reward.

As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.

I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.

All government, of course, is against liberty.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

People are always coming up to me and saying, ‚I heard your dad’s speech, and it’s really great.‘ And they’ll mention some place I didn’t even know my dad was going to.

There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.

Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

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.

We’ve gotta become the Martians. I’m a Martian – I tell you to become Martians. And we’ve gotta go to Mars and civilize Mars and build a whole civilization on Mars and then move out, 300 years from now into the universe. And when we do that, we have a chance of living forever.

You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

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

I think America has always been polarized.

If workers are more insecure, that’s very ‚healthy‘ for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won’t ask for wages, they won’t go on strike, they won’t call for benefits; they’ll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that’s optimal for corporations‘ economic health.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be.

I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

You cannot share your life with a dog, as I had done in Bournemouth, or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world.

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.