“The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country.”

We can master change not though force or fear, but only though the free work of an understanding mind, though an openness to new knowledge and fresh outlooks, which can only strengthen the most fragile and most powerful of human gifts: the gift of reason.

What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet.

In your hands lies the future of your world and the fulfilment of the best qualities of your own spirit.

The future does not belong to those who are content with today Rather, it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason, and courage in a personal commitment.

If you never quit, youll never fail.

I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.

Together, we can make ourselves a nation that spends more on books than on bombs, more on hospitals than the terrible tools of war, more on decent houses than military aircraft.

While free markets tend to democratize a society, unfettered capitalism leads invariably to corporate control of government.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.

Fear not the path of Truth for the lack of People walking on it.

The intolerant man will not rely on persuasion, or on the worth of the idea. He would deny to others the very freedom of opinion or of dissent which he so stridently demands for himself. He cannot trust democracy.

I dream of things that are not and ask why not.

Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.

This much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

It is the essence of responsibility to put the public good ahead of personal gain.

I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn’t identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music. They just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

The election is not just about the economy, climate change, education and health care. This is about whether we retain American democracy.

Some states spend more $$ on prisons than on colleges. We have to make a change.

I think the most stressful time of my life was when I was in New York, and I didn’t have money to pay my rent.

As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven’t been told.

Understanding our history is one of many ways to break the cycle of racial injustice in this country. ⁣

For the sake of peace in the Middle East and the world, Japan will never give up and will continue to play its best possible role.