You always admire what you really don't understand.
A trait no other nation seems to possess in quite the same degree that we do -- namely, a feeling of almost childish injury and resentment unless the world as a whole recognizes how innocent we are of anything but the most generous and harmless intentions.
Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.
It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.
It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You'll be criticized anyway.
I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's life, not even your own child's.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.
All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together through long years get to know one another's failings; but they also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration in those they live with and in themselves. If at the end one can say, This man used to the limit the powers that God granted him; he was worthy of love and respect and of the sacrifices of many people, made in order that he might achieve what he deemed to be his task, then that life has been lived well and there are no regrets.
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.†You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.
Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.
Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.
You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Perhaps in His wisdom the Almighty is trying to show us that a leader may chart the way, may point out the road to lasting peace, but that many leaders and many peoples must do the building.
The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.
Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
It is equality of monotony which makes the strength of the British Isles.
What one has to do usually can be done.
I have spent many years of my life in opposition and I like the role.
If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it.
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
I think somehow we learn who we really are and then we live with that decision.
Understanding is a two-way street.
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.