“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”

It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.

Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Politeness is a sign of dignity not subservience.

No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.

Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.

All the resources we need are in the mind.

No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong.

When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.

It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.

The greatest ideas, the most profound thoughts, and the most beautiful poetry are born from the womb of silence.

If men found out how to give birth to children they’ll never propose again.

Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.

I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

And better had they ne’er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Where were you born?” “On a battlefield,” [Yossarian] answered. “No, no. In what state were you born?” “In a state of innocence.

The softest breeze to fairest flowers gives birth: Think not that Prudence dwells in dark abodes, She scans the future with the eye of gods.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.