When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.

The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

Most of our people have never had it so good.

It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.

I have learned that in all negotiations nothing matters except the will to reach agreement.

If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.

Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.

I'd like that translated, if I may.

There is no greater path than the act of listening, because the observer who listens can begin to see themselves as a part of one expression of purpose and beingness.

Beauty is a God-given talent that we should all conserve.

The self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.

If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

I didn't have an imaginary friend, and even if I did I'm sure it would have been derivative of something I saw on television.

Anything we have, we are only borrowing. Anything. Any time.

I don't want to be ignorant in my daughter's eyes.

We generally write best of what we ourselves have seen.

The only reason I've been so critical of hip-hop is because I've always been aware of the effect that it has, and the reflection that it gives of the African-American community.