“Never send a battalion to take a hill if a regiment is available.”

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.

Through knowledge and understanding, we will drive from the temple of freedom all those who seek to establish over us thought control, whether they be agents of a foreign state or demagogues thirsty for personal power and public notice.

In most communities it is illegal to cry fire in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?

The history of free men is never written by chance but by choice – their choice.

So the world is again faced with the problem of armed aggression. Powerful dictatorships are attacking an exposed, but free, area.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight- it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.

Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.

Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.

Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you, who see more clearly than you.

We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.

Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.

Don’t be afraid to go to your library and read every book as long as any document does not offend your own ideas of decency.

The problem is not merely man against man or nation against nation. It is man against war.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

Every choice we make has a lesson waiting for us.

I am torn between the obligation to sit still and the overwhelming urge to run.

When people are free to choose, they choose freedom.

You’re going to pay a price for every bloody thing you do and everything you don’t do. You don’t get to choose to not pay a price. You get to choose which poison you’re going to take. That’s it.

Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice, he ascends.

Consciousness is a mystery that faces the mystery of potential and transforms it into actuality. We do that with every choice we make. Our choices determine the destiny of the world. By making a choice, you alter the structure of reality.

And as the rain fell and the birds kept singing, I realized that freedom is a choice.

Drowning in grey days rising up into blue, I will choose to love myself in all colors.