Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any abolitionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began.

Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.

I am not going to be a mouthpiece for language that I detest.

A physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country.

When your mother asks, ‚Do you want a piece of advice?‘ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

We cannot wish for that we know not.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Assassination has never changed the history of the world.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.

Money has a language of its own.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

After Hiroshima was bombed, I saw a photograph of the side of a house with the shadows of the people who had lived there burned into the wall from the intensity of the bomb. The people were gone, but their shadows remained.

A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

I think some of my colleagues‘ spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.

I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I’m afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to.

I believe that God breathed life into every person and that every person is made in the image of God and you have accept them as they are, on their journey. I’m not here to preach hate or push people down.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

Facts are stubborn things.

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it’s always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

A yawn is a silent shout.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

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

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

All our words from loose using have lost their edge.

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job, I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: ‚Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don’t you realize that?‘ They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn’t want to enter their minds.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.