Although a man may have no jurisdiction over the fact of his existence, he can hold supreme command over the meaning of existence for him.

Silence must be comprehended as not solely the absence of sound. It is the natural environment for serenity and contemplation. Life without silence is life without privacy. The difference between sanity and madness is the quality of our thoughts. Silence is on the side of sanity.

We are wide-eyed in contemplating the possibility that life may exist elsewhere in the universe, but we wear blinders when contemplating the possibilities of life on earth.

Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out their conscience, thus helping bring the collective conscience to life.

The justification for those actions was that we were living in a very hard, predatory, cloak-and-dagger world and that the only way to deal with a totalitarian enemy was to intimidate him. The trouble with this theory was that while we live in a world of plot and counterplot, we also live in a world of cause and effect. Whatever the cause for the decision to legitimize and regularize deceit abroad, the inevitable effect was the practice of deceit at home.

Of all the gifts bestowed by nature on human beings, hearty laughter must be close to the top.

Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.