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.
A human being is a deciding being.
A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.
Human history is in essence a history of ideas.
Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.
Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it's like they didn't fade away at all.
All sins are attempts to fill voids.
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.
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
Progress of mankind is progress of mind and intellect.
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
In many people it is already an impertinence to say 'I'.
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
No mortal can keep a secret. If the lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
You climb to reach the summit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down.
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.
