Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

I was always respectful of people who were deeply religious because I always felt that if they gave themselves to it, then it had to be important to them. But if you can go through life without it, that’s OK, too. It’s whatever suits you.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.

I’ve known for years that the university underserved the community, because we assumed that university education is for 18- to 22-year-olds, which is a proposition that’s so absurd it is absolutely mind-boggling that anyone ever conceptualized it. Why wouldn’t you take university courses throughout your entire life?

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.

Anybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that’s been discriminated against, knows what it’s like.

Regardless of what society says, we can’t go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

Never ask anyone over 70 how they feel. They’ll tell you.

We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So when you attend a retreat, you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

In some respects, South African apartheid was more vicious than Israeli practices, and in some respects the opposite is true.

Yeah, it’s pretty hard not to be completely cynical these days.

Today, we’re still loaded down – and, to some extent, embarrassed – by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But we now have the opportunity to discover, for the first time, the way the universe is in fact constructed as opposed to how we would wish it to be constructed.

When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‚Bird,‘ I use 90% black people.

I think that society has to be careful not to shift all of its resources to the elderly versus the young.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion-, and even nation-centred cultures.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

For my part, I desire to see the time when education – and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry – shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period.

I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

While victimhood in America is exalted, I don’t think our veterans should join those ranks.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

I don’t think I’m supposed to boss other people around just because I’m a so-called celebrity or star. I hate that when people act that way. No one deserves it. I’ve seen it happen. I don’t call those people out – they know who they are. Some enjoy that reputation.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

Since I have come to America, I am often asked whether my next novel will be set in America. I don’t think it will. I think I will be living in America for some time to come, but while living in America, I would like to write about Japanese society from the outside.

If every man loves his mother, he’s going to treat the ladies right, with love and respect.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge. The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.

As social animals we humans are very sensitive to our rank and position within any group. We can measure our status by the attention and respect we receive.

We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

If you want to appeal to everyone, you can’t do a world tour and expect black people to show up at every date – when you’re in Australia, when you’re in Dubai, when you’re in Indonesia.

We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. We have truly entered the century of the educated man.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.