“Making a success of the job at hand is the best step toward the kind you want.”

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 always sort of talk about – to myself at least, or to my friends, about wanting to just keep life very simple. I’ve found it most simple here in New York.

I went to Tokyo three years ago. It was a job, though. I did an ad campaign for IBM, so they flew me out there to take pictures of me. It was IBM Global. It went to Australia, France, London, all over the world. But I think the ad campaign was a failure, because of me.

We must never forget that it is the private sector – not government – that is the engine of economic opportunity. Businesses, particularly small businesses, flourish and can provide good jobs when government acts as a productive partner.

I try not to be either optimistic or pessimistic. I try not to think about outcomes on that scale. My job, it seems to me, is to wake up every morning and figure out how to cause as much trouble for the fossil fuel industry as I can.

If I run into someone on the street, that’s one thing. But answering mail for a living? I like a job where you can play and act kind of goofy and have some fun.

We need an equal opportunity society, one in which government does not see its job as picking winners and losers. Where do you go if you want special favors?

As far as police go, if officers are really that scared or timid [on the streets], maybe they shouldn’t be police officers. Their job is to protect and serve and they’re supposed to be the bravest of the brave.

The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself.