Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you and were tender with you and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you and disputed passage with you?

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them.

The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

Trust men and they will be true to you treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

I believe in the America people's ability to govern themselves. If government would just get out of the way and allow them to lead their lives as they choose they will succeed.

Gandhi has asked that the British Government should walk out of India and leave the Indian people to settle differences among themselves even if it means chaos and confusion.

If indeed a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes and yet the government of course is arming criminals.

The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned stop conning yourself.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot therefore maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

The office of government is not to confer happiness but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

We should reject big government and look inside ourselves for all the things that built this country into what it was.

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence the morality the justice and the interest of the people themselves.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

Mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own government.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials but the voters of this country.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And of course sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Being in a rock band is about touring. It's about writing songs and it's about making records but it's also about taking a wonderful smile onto that stage and making the people feel good about themselves.

We call ourselves public servants but I'll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.

If the opposition disarms well and good. If it refuses to disarm we shall disarm it ourselves.

To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say and always a clever thing to say.

Walk a mile in my shoes is good advice. Our children will learn to respect others if they are used to imagining themselves in another's place.