The initial sketch is always an emotion, not a concept.

When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy.

If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.

There's never an end for the sea.

Every child has a dream, to pursue the dream is in every child's hand to make it a reality. One's invention is another's tool.

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.

The country shall be independent, and we will be satisfied with nothing short of it.

A true patriot would keep the attention of his fellow citizens awake to their grievances, and not allow them to rest till the causes of their just complaints are removed.

Success seems to be largely a matterof hanging on after others have let go.

It is a perfect deception when you can lie to yourself and believe it. You cannot love two people the same. One will always fall by the shadows…even if that one is you.

If there was a volcano under their feet, a Vesuvius that could erupt and bury this modern-day Pompeii at any moment, the best thing to do was dance on it.

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can't wait for a feeling to motivate you.

In regard to intellect and true virtue, every nation is on a par with the rest, and God has not in these respects chosen one people rather than another.

No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.

In the islands of the Aegean Sea, every island is full of graves.

As it acts in the world, the Tao is like the bending of a bow. The top is bent downward; the bottom is bent up. It adjusts excess and deficiency so that there is perfect balance.

Decades later I would look into my father's eyes and try to reach past the murkiness of Alzheimer's with my words, my apology, hoping that in his heart he heard me and understood.

For some reason the football coach of a major college program is seen as one of the leaders of the campus. And some way we have to let our young people know that that leader can look like anyone.