“Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”

“Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.”

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

“You may never know what results come of your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”

“The time is always right to do what's right.”