The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice...It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul... It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us, And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born.

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.

A friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.

You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.

I am not afraid... I was born to do this.

For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.

If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take up your arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep no more.

Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require.

The sword of a virtuous character and upright conduct is sharper than blades of steel...

Beware lest ye shed the blood of anyone. Unsheathe the sword of your tongue from the scabbard of utterance, for therewith ye can conquer the citadels of men's hearts. We have abolished the law to wage holy war against each other. God's mercy, hath, verily, encompassed all created things, if ye do...

O people! Spread not disorder in the land, and shed not the blood of any one, and consume not the substance of others wrongfully, neither follow every accursed prattler.

The most beloved of all things in My sight is justice.

An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

[W]hen people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

Our scientific powers have outrun our spiritual powers; we have guided missiles and mis-guided men.

Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed but the vast majority who sat idly by.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making... As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of a softly simmering cauldron and its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

I may not yet be as old as dirt, but dirt and I are starting to have an awful lot in common.

I respect my limitations, but I don't use them as an excuse.

I have no special virtue to make me resent him. One must have strength in order to judge the weakness of others. I am not so mighty.

Accepting that which is offered honors the giver.

Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.

There is too much love in the world not to hug everyone when you see them.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

A true friend is one that is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.

The dread of criticism is the death of genius.

Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it.

The worst men often give the best advice.

Most people when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected.

No cause is helpless if it is just. Errors, no matter how popular, carry the seeds of their own destruction.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.

People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

We inevitably doom our children to failure and frustration when we try to set their goals for them.

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

Minds are like parachutes: they only function when open.

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.

Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

When I tell any truth it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those who do.

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.

To the eyes of a miser a guinea is more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, accept it and live up to it.

Even as rain penetrates an ill-thatched house, so does lust penetrate an undeveloped mind.

Though one should conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, he who conquers his own self, is the greatest of all conquerers.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Dream big and never take no for an answer.

...seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.

One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education... The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted.

The mobilization of world opinion and methods of negotiation should be developed and used by every nation in order to strengthen the United Nations. Then if we are forced into war, it will be because there has been no way to prevent it through negotiation and the mobilization of world opinion. In which case we should have the voluntary support of many nations, which is far better than the decision of one nation alone, or even of a few nations.

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 — for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

For 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 future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail.

It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people cherish, and in what singular places they look for this well-spring of their life. Many look for it in the hoarding of riches, some in the pride of power, and others in the achievements of art and literature; a few seek it in the exploration of their own minds, or in search for knowledge.

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Strike against all ordinances and laws and institutions that continue the slaughter of peace and the butcheries of war. Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human being. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.

I pray for no more youth
To perish before its prime;
That Revenge and iron-heated War
May fade with all that has gone before
Into the night of time.

The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

Success is the child of audacity.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

There is no education like adversity.

The secret to success is constancy to purpose.

What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.