“The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.”

When you have people together who believe in something very strongly – whether it’s religion or politics or unions – things happen.

Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.

Do not romanticize the poor. We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity.

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.

I’m not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it. If they want it, they’ll ask for it.

Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.

If you’re not frightened that you might fail, you’ll never do the job. If you’re frightened, you’ll work like crazy.

What is at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he cannot demand it.

The only ones who make things change are fanatics. If you’re not a fanatic around here, you can’t cut it.

We are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.

Dr. King challenged us to work for a greater humanity. I only hope that we are worthy of his challenge.

From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.

Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?

I’ve always maintained that it isn’t the form that’s going to make the difference. It isn’t the rule or the procedure or the ideology, but it’s human beings that will make it.

Perfection is just a lie, failure’s not forever, rejection is but a sign, darling you are a treasure.

I have never judged myself by other people’s standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself.

No matter how many people celebrate your gifts, don’t ever think that you are more important to them than your gift is to them. This is why many people fail: They fail because they think that people came to follow them.

An indispensable hypothesis, even though still far from being a guarantee of success, is however the pursuit of a specific aim, whose lighted beacon, even by initial failures, is not betrayed.

I turned against the left wing because they don’t like genetics, because genetics implies that sometimes in life we fail because we have bad genes. They want all failure in life to be due to the evil system.

My method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training—if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure.

Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.