History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you don't use the stuff - well, it might as well be dead.

Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

The immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land.

Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.

The aim of all education is, or should be, to teach people to educate themselves.

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.

Material power that is not counterbalanced by adequate spiritual power, that is, by love and wisdom, is a curse

The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves.

The only real struggle in the history of the world ... is between the vested interest and social justice.

The absolute value of love makes life worth while, and so makes Man's strange and difficult situation acceptable. Love cannot save life from death; but it can fulfill life's purpose.

Real transformation requires real honesty. If you want to move forward — get real with yourself.

I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.

Bullies do whatever they can get away with and keep pushing boundaries until they meet resistance.

I prefer the school of life.

I have seen children shot in El Salvador, Algeria, Guatemala, Sarajevo, but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.

I still love my former wife, I won't call her my ex-wife.

I love HBO productions, actually, like 'The Wire.'

The smaller the number and the more permanent and conspicuous the station of men in power, the stronger must be the interest which they will individually feel in whatever concerns the government.

Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.

Nothing is black-and-white, except for winning and losing, and maybe that’s why people gravitate to that so much.