The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.
Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920's and 1930's when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother's keeper.
There are those who say to you - we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.
There is a lot of difference between failure and defeat. Failure is when you are defeated and neither learn nor contribute anything.
This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.
The measure of a civilization is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the margins of life and the twilight of life.
We can not expect to breed respect for law and order among people who do not share the fruits of our freedom.
Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.
Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.
The gap between the rich and the poor is the most dangerous threat to world peace we have.
The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.
People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.
Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity -- an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.
Never give up on anybody.
The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!
Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man.
As we begin to comprehend that the earth itself is a kind of manned spaceship hurtling through the infinity of space ~ it will seem increasingly absurd that we have not better organized the life of the human family.
Never answer a question from a farmer.
Though everyone has an equal right to speak, not all have earned an equal right to be taken seriously.
The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.
Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.
Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society.
We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice - however much we might desire it.
It is always a risk to speak to the press: they are likely to report what you say.
My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than trickle down.
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