I don't think modesty is a very good virtue, if it is a virtue at all. A modest person will drop the modesty in a minute. It's a learned affectation.

I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.

My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.

It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don't think it's fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself.

Intelligence is a separate gift, for the benefit of students, so that they may think of themselves as intellectual and not very intelligent, or intelligent and not very intellectual. One hopes, of course, that they try to bring the two virtues, the two elements, into their lives at the same time.

Courage, I don't think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That's not courage.

Make the most of yourself for that is all there is of you.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Every artist was first an amateur.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

We become what we think about all day long.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.

Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.

We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American.

The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me. It's fascinating because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today. I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for the overcoming.

I think I know that I deserve better. And so I try for better. I'm never so put off that I would ever walk out of a place not having tried the best I could.

Original thinking migrates each day in search of nourishment.

I made the decision to quit show business. Give up the skintight dresses and manicured smiles. The false concern over sentimental lyrics. I would never again work to make people smile inanely and would take on the responsibility of making them think.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as heck we should never teach.

You can't use up creativity, creative thinking builds on itself and increases the creativity of the thinker...You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Some day we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.

I do not think of myself as unusually creative. I think we all come from the creator, each human being streaming with the glory. So each one of us is creative.

Laugh as often as possible. You must. Because the world will offer you every reason to weep. So as often as possible, you laugh. That, I think, is part of the Great Love.

Language. I loved it. And for a long time I would think of myself, of my whole body, as an ear.

I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think is the right thing, I will not do it.

The truth is you never can leave home. You take it with you everywhere you go. It's under your skin. It moves the tongue or slows it, colors the thinking, impedes upon the logic.

It's hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody.

There is something more - the spirit, or the soul. I think that that quality encourages our courtesy and care and our minds. And mercy, and identity.

I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves.

Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Our greatest strength lies not in never having fallen, but in rising every time we fall.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. 

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Imitation is suicide.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don't think it will come back.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

I think when we don't know what to do it's wise to do nothing. Sit down quietly; quiet our hearts and minds and breathe deeply.