I am not optimistic, but I've never been optimistic about humankind or America. The evidence never looks good in terms of forces for good actually becoming prominent.

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public

Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.

Too many young folk have addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth and love.

None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)

The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration.

We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence.

We are who we are because somebody loved us.

A fully functional multiracial society cannot be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue.

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.

My strength is my power of love, my weakness is my kindness for those who suffers.

It is only with distance that we are able to turn our powers of observation on ourselves, thus fashioning stories in which we are characters.

I wouldn't give a dime for all the possibilities of [motion pictures with sound]. The public will never accept it.

If a man can reach the latter days of his life with his soul intact, he has mastered life.

The climate stubbornly refuses to co-operate with computer models and the writers of alarmist popular articles and books.

Naturally, patterns emerge through repetition, and repetition yields up a type of discovery that reveals everything about itself, especially its sorry limits.

It is not a virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue, when we are led to the performance of duty by pleasure as its recompense.

You know that if you lie to yourself, surely other people lie to themselves. And if they lie to themselves, they will lie to you also.

The good news is we have the technology and the tools to alleviate poverty on a global scale. All that is standing in our way is education and will.