“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress.”

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.

Always forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey. On the contrary, great change dominates the world, and unless we move with change we will become its victims.

People say I am ruthless. I am not ruthless. And if I find the man who is calling me ruthless, I shall destroy him.

Victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed.

The natural state of a human being is dignity.

Religion is a salve for confusion and misdirection.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Ultimately, America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

The greatest truth must be recognition that in every man, in every child is the potential for greatness.

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things.

He tells so many lies that he convinces himself after a while that he’s telling the truth. He just doesn’t recognize truth or falsehood.

But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?

I really believe Jesus’s forgiveness is the answer to our shame and our feelings of helplessness.

There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.

Believe in yourself and don’t let nobody stop you from doin’ what you gotta do.

If it’s not you it’s not anyone.

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.

The American people want to believe that we have a justice department that is committed to justice.

I was raised to believe that New England is the best place on the planet.

You can believe in private property or national borders with logical consistency. But not both.