Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Freedom lies in being bold.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.

Did you know there’s a difference between being busy and being fruitful? Did you ever stop to think that just being busy – running around in circles all day but not accomplishing anything – is the same as wasting your time? It’s frustrating to expend so much energy and time and not have any fruit from your effort!

It’s tough to go to sleep at night, and I wake up after five hours because I feel like I’m wasting time. I just sit up at night and think about what I can do next.

I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

Well begun is half done.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch nonfear, you are free.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.

I always have to be writing.

Only the educated are free.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

I usually get up at 3 A.M. I don’t require a lot of sleep, and if I get tired, I’ll take a powernap during the day.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing – that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world – is what I wish for all.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

Never confuse motion with action.

I’m not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I’ve flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it – and I may come back.

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

I’m never any good in the morning. It is only after four in the afternoon that I get going.

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it ‚tap-dancing to work.‘

When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.

We must use time creatively.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

People who don’t like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that’s how life is.

I put out one album one week, and I’m already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

As long as I stay in training and play well, I don’t see what objection there can be to what I do off the field.

I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.

From infancy, I have relied on the fiercely sweet spirits of black men; and this is abundantly clear in my work.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

All of us are in the same place, each with our own rooms, and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Which is totally different than college, where they manage your schedule for you. In the NBA, you’re on your own.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.