Great Throughts Treasury

"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth."

"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."

"The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds."

"The mere absence of war is not peace."

"The nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."

"The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master."

"The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and the common vulnerability of this planet."

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."

"The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion."

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God."

"There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

"There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow."

"There is always inequity in life... Life is unfair."

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

"We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world - or make it the last."

"We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age - the search for the freedom and self-fulfillment of man."

"We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth."

"We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes."

"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of men's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his experience. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgment. The artist... faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an offensive state."

"When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity."

"World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor - it requires that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement."

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. "

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

"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. "

"In politics you have no friends, only allies. "

"Law alone cannot make men see right. "

"My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial, beautifully coordinated, and all the rest, it must be that not much is going on."

"Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world – or to make it the last. "

"No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. "

"One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. "

"The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. "

"The essence of ultimate decision remains impenetrable to the observer – often, indeed, to the decider himself. "

"This is not a legal or legislative issue alone… We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is a clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities… We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people."

"A child miseducated is a child lost. "

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. "

"History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside. "

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"I'm an idealist without illusions. "

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. "

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. "

"The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy."

"The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. "

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. "

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. "

"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly. "

"The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution. "

"Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security."

"The best road to progress is freedom's road. "

"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. "