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.

Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

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

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

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

Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.

Our true nationality is mankind.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth.

No mortal can keep a secret. If the lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.

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

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

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

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

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

The capacity to suffer varies more than anything that I have observed in human nature.

People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can't be fixed.

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

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

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

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.