Poor strangers, they have so much to be afraid of.
A man to whom you do a favor will not understand if you say nothing, make no noise, just walk away. You may cause more trouble by refusing a bribe than by accepting it.
A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.
To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor's real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume!
In dealing with a man who thinks you are a fool, it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace.
There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.
Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
We will be substantially upgrading all of our military - all of our military. Offensive, defensive, everything. Bigger and better and stronger than ever before. And hopefully, we'll never have to use it. But nobody is going to mess with us, folks. Nobody.
As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.