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.
No mortal can keep a secret. If the lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I, or the others, crazy?
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.
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.
A human being is a deciding being.
A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
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.
A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society.
It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.
Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
There is no come back to caves. We are too many.
To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
The capacity to suffer varies more than anything that I have observed in human nature.
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.