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

Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.

Pull the string and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.

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.

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.

Love begins with listening.

We need to listen to Black women.

I speak and speak but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.

Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.

When someone gives you their silence. Listen.

People should listen to my music because it’s good.

Only the soul can create change. Listen to it.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.