“Government ought to be all outside and no inside. Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.”

Conformity will be the only virtue and any man who refuses to conform will have to pay the penalty.

The world must be made safe for democracy.

There’s not an idea in our heads that has not been worn shiny by someone else’s brains.

There was a time when corporations played a minor part in our business affairs, but now they play the chief part, and most men are the servants of corporations.

Unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.

No government has ever been beneficent when the attitude of government was that it was taking care of the people. The only freedom consists in the people taking care of the government.

If you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing; if you lose your health, you have lost something; but if you lose your character, you have lost everything.

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.

Thought cannot conceive of anything that may not be brought to expression. He who first uttered it may be only the suggester, but the doer will appear.

We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.

I am not one of those who believe that a great standing army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.

The object of love is to serve, not to win.

No man can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.

America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us.

Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse. Untrammeled reasoning is the indulgence of the philosopher, of the dreamer of sweet dreams.

One finds one’s destiny on the path one takes to avoid it.

What we avoid, controls us.

Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name.

There seems to be no limit to which some men will go to avoid the labor of thinking. Thinking is hard work.

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the real labor of thinking.

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it.

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but never hit softly.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.