“The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.”
“Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.”
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. 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, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice.”
“Don't get mad, get even.”
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
“One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”
“Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator and change has enemies.”
“Moral courage is a more rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence.”
“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.”
“Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.”
“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.”
“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”