“Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.”

Far more critical than what we know or what we don’t know is what we don’t want to know.

For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life.

To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn.

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.

We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.

The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.

No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government.

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults.

When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question.

If you get into business solely to make money, you won’t. If you try to make a real difference, you’ll find success.

The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and the future.

Don’t ever let anybody tell you that your efforts don’t matter or that your voice doesn’t count. Don’t ever believe that you can’t make a difference. You have.

Great differences in technology exist in the world about which even hardcore technologists are unaware.

I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.

There are two kinds of stories, the ones you live and the ones you make up. And nobody knows the difference, and I don’t ever tell which is which.

There’s a difference between a want and a need. Some nights I just want more than me.

The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.