Excuse me: I am homeless. I am gay. I have AIDS. I'm new in town.
He who has a true idea, knows at that same time that he has a true idea, nor can he doubt concerning the truth of the thing.
Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more easily than their words.
Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.
If everyone thinks you're bizarre and creepy, then you play bad guys. If everyone thinks you're beautiful and wants to kiss you, then you play the lead role.
O that men would know themselves to be men; and that he that glorieth would glory in the Lord.
Empowerment is constantly challenging oneself with something difficult that tests his power of nerve, knack, skill, aptitude, attitude and wisdom to do things diligently, delightfully but differently.
For what is modesty but hypocritical humility, by means of which, in a world swelling with vile envy, a man seeks to beg pardon for his excellences and merits from those who have none? For whoever attributes no merit to himself because he really has none is not modest, but merely honest.