Freedom is an absolute state, there is no such thing as being half-free.
My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying.
Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism, are all too frequently those who. . . ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism-the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought.
I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny-fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.
The right to criticize: the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood. . . Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own.
The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.
My creed is that public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation with full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration, that constructive criticism is not only to be expected but sought, that smears are not only to be expected but fought, that honor is to be earned, not bought.
Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.
Music I do just for me.
If you keep your eyes so fixed on heaven that you never look at the earth, you will stumble into hell.
Forgiveness is nothing more and nothing less than an act of self-healing-an act of self-empowermen t.