As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.  

No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

Happiness is activity.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

Friendship is essentially a partnership.

Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through that mirror they can see each other in ways that would not otherwise be accessible to them, and it is this mirroring that helps them improve themselves as persons.

To love someone is to identify with them.

Wit is educated insolence.

We cannot learn without pain.

To the query, What is a friend? his reply was A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.