“Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act. More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular.”

So efficient are the available instruments of slavery; fingerprints, lie detectors, brain washings, gas chambers; that we shiver at the thought of political change which might put these instruments in the hands of men of hate.

Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that’s you and that isn’t necessarily you.

You can’t repeal human nature by an Act of Congress.

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.

During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth.

Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of our industries. The cities are but the branches of the tree of national life, the roots of which go deeply into the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer.

Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see.

Never answer a critic, unless he’s right.

I get the facts, I study them patiently, I apply imagination.

The terror created by weaponry has never stopped men from employing them.

Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.

I was the son of an immigrant. I experienced bigotry, intolerance and prejudice, even as so many of you have. Instead of allowing these thing to embitter me, I took them as spurs to more strenuous effort. .

We did not all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat.

I made my money by selling too soon.

Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth, the realities that must be grappled with.

I usually go with roles that I find entertaining. But every once in a while, there comes along a film that has an important social message. As actors, we have a certain responsibility toward our audience.

Each individual in fact has moral responsibility for the acts which he personally performs; no one can be exempted from this responsibility, and on the basis of it everyone will be judged by God himself.

Everything you have, whether it’s money or stuff, is an obligation. It is as much your duty to care for and nurture any object you own as it would be if that object were your child. All possessions come with responsibilities. More possessions equals greater responsibility.

Rather than exist each day in some dull, boring habitual manner, move into action on a big idea. Everyone is on the brink of possibility.

Our whole social order could self-destruct over the obsession with freedom disconnected from responsibility; where choice is imagined to be somehow independent of consequences.

My responsibility is to obey, to surrender my heart and to yield myself to the will of God. It is in the process of obedience that we gain understanding.

This is the first step toward understanding the process of real, lasting change: simply knowing with certainty that you can do whatever you need to do.

A corporation’s responsibility is to the shareholders, not its retirees and employees. Companies are doing everything they can to get rid of pension plans and they will succeed.