To harmonize the One with the Many, this is indeed a difficult adjustment, perhaps the most difficult of all, and so important, withal, that nations have perished from their failure to achieve it.

Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.

The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology.

Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.

The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.

Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.

The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.

If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.

We must not, however, be like the leaders of the great romantic revolt who, in their eagerness to get rid of the husk of convention, disregarded also the humane aspiration.

A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above his ordinary self as to make him feel that he is himself spiritually the underdog.

If I had echolocation I could map out the terrain of ab muscles through sheer force of will. His cut body is meant to be relief mapped the way Braille is meant to be read. With my fingertips.

Often we are the prisoner of praise and appreciation.

Men's actions depend to a great extent upon fear. We do things either because we enjoy doing them or because we are afraid not to do them.

I am not saying that Hitler was a choir boy. But I am saying, let him who was innocent in the Second World War cast the first stone.

I wanted a trumpet concerto that reflected Native American music because, well, there aren't any. I looked around for one but couldn't find anything. So it's a wide-open field.

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. They will make note of this and not remain in your debt long.

Children are not simply commodities to be herded into line and trained for the jobs that white people who live in segregated neighborhoods have available.

I always give homeless people money, and my friends yell at me, 'He's only going to buy more alcohol and cigarettes.' And I'm thinking, 'Oh, like I wasn't?'

Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit.

Parenthood is not an object of appetite or even desire. It is an object of will. There is no appetite for parenthood; there is only a purpose or intention of parenthood.