Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Virtue tested: "Have I not survived hunger and thirst, suffering, and mockery for the sake of the truth which heaven has awakened in my heart?

Because the soul is like a flower that folds its petals when dark comes, and breathes not its fragrance into the phantoms of the night.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Let us disperse from our aloofness and serve the weak who made us strong, and cleanse the country in which we live. Let us teach this miserable nation to smile and rejoice with heaven's bounty and glory of life and freedom.

Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf. For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things. And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.