“Mere unorthodoxy or dissent from the prevailing mores is not to be condemned. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness to our society.”

The success of any legal system is measured by its fidelity to the universal ideal of justice.

To get what you want, STOP doing what isn’t working.

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.

Don’t complain about growing old — many, many people do not have that privilege.

Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

Those who serve upon our juries have maintained a standard of fairness and excellence and demonstrated a vision toward the administration of justice that is a wellspring of inspiration.

To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.

Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.

Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower.

I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.

In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.

It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defence, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defence of our nation worthwhile.

Our War of the Revolution was, in good measure, fought as a protest against standing armies.

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.

Racial discrimination in public education is unconstitutional. All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting such discrimination must yield to this principle.

Life without smoking is like the smoke without the roast.

In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power.

Darkness is merely the absence of light, and fear is merely the absence of love. If we want to be rid of fear, we cannot fight it but must replace it with love.

The purity of man is the absence of something, the purity of Jesus is the presence of something.

Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.

What we call evil is the absence of Light, of love, in all cases.