I despise people who depend on these things [heroin and cocaine]. If you really want a mind-altering experience, look at a tree.

Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.

Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.

A person's a person, no matter how small.

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

You climb to reach the summit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission

A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.

It’s extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. There is so much more out there than what connects to us.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth.

More than 26,000 lives may be lost to the effects of drug abuse this year. This tragic impact is felt in communities across this great nation. Sadly many of these deaths occur among our young people.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.