The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.

Your success and happiness lie in you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer trappings.

The continued lynchings and other crimes against negroes, whether in New England or the South, and unspeakable political exponents of white supremacy, according to all recorded history, augur ill for America's future.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

To keep our faces toward chance and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

...our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding.

Blindness separates people from things; deafness separates people from people.