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

The greatest attitude of all is gratitude.

Poverty is... Curable like any disease. Ignorance, dependence, inefficiency, laziness, want of the spirit of enterprise are the real real causes of poverty.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.

That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim.

Americans of our own time - minority and majority Americans alike - need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.

Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.

A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.

Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it's like they didn't fade away at all.

A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.

A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.

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

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

These are people who are capable of devotion, public devotion, to justice. They meant what they said and every day that passes, they mean it more.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Progress of mankind is progress of mind and intellect.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.