“Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.”

I am no big shot. I am not anybody’s boss. I want to be everybody’s servant.

One of the most serious problems that our country has inherited an unwillingness to talk to anyone who disagrees with us or who won’t accept, before a discussion, all the premises that we demand.

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human right violation on earth.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

I’ve never won an argument with my wife; and the only time I thought I had I found out the argument wasn’t over yet.

And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill – do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.

We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.

I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Throughout my life, I’ve seen the difference that volunteering efforts can make in people’s lives. I know the personal value of service as a local volunteer.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Fashion has a right to exist, because it permits the people to define themselves over and over again.

Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious; they don’t like to joke.

I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.

All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence.

The Beatles exist apart from my Self. I am not really Beatle George. Beatle George is like a suit or shirt that I once wore on occasion and until the end of my life people may see that shirt and mistake it for me.

I am a island – I am an island so large that though I live here, I know it not.

I think mortality makes you live a fuller existence. When I was a kid I was scared of death, and maybe that’s what made me desperate to get the most out of life.

When you are not happy with your life, always think that someone is happy simply because you exist.