Gilda Radner
A. Philip Randolph
Jeannette Rankin
John Raper
Dan Rather
Sam Rayburn
Ronald Reagan
Ambrose Redmoon
Ernest Renan
Jules Renard
Burt Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
T. Rice
Ron Richards
Ralph Richardson
Michael Rivero
Frank L. Rizzo
Stephen Henry Roberts
Francis Rodman
Will Rogers
Andy Rooney
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Jean Rostand
Leo Rosten
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Helen Rowland
Jill Ruckelshaus
Bertrand Russel
David Russel
Mark Rutherford
Todd Ruthman
Joe Ryan
Jim Ryun
� 2000 E-mail me
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Salvation for a race, nation, or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands and races, and the struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final act, but a continuing and evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationships.
Violence seldom accomplishes permanent and desired results. Herein lies the futility of war.
Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
There is no sense in having an argument with a man so stupid he doesn't know you have the better of him.
An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger.
If a man has common sense, he has all the sense there is.
Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
People build walls to keep an enemy out, and there's only one part of the world and one philosophy where they have to build walls to keep their people in.
If we get the federal government out of the classroom, maybe we'll get God back in.
My belief has always been that wherever in this land any individual's constitutional rights are being unjustly denied, it is the obligation of the federal government--at point of bayonet if necessary--to restore that individual's constitutional rights.
America's view of apartheid is simple and straightforward: We believe that it is wrong. We condemn it. And we are united in hoping for the day when apartheid will be no more.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have given his life.
The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
The moment you grab someone by the lapels, you're lost.
The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
Don't hurry, don't worry, and don't forget to smell the flowers.
My grandfather's a little forgetful, but he likes to give me advice. One day, he took me aside and left me there.
Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.
History is a joke played by the victors on the vanquished in front of an audience that dares not laugh.
Truth needs no laws to enforce it.
We have a political system that awards office to the most ruthless, cunning, and selfish of mortals, then act surprised when those those willing to do anything to win power are equally willing to do anything with it.
Americans don't need to lie to themselves. That's what the government is for!
A conservative is a liberal who was mugged the night before.
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously, and the politicians as a joke.
I would rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
The best thing about this group of candidates is that only one of them can win.
The movies enable an actor not only to act but to sit down in the theater and clap for himself.
Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do something is when they become dangerous.
Nothing in fine print is ever good news.
Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
Believe in yourself. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You must do that which you think you cannot do.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Freedom of speech is of no use to the man who has nothing to say.
A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.
Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
It is better to be faithful than famous.
You cannot fight hard unless you think you are fighting to win.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
You can't get pure water and put sewage into the lake. I say this on behalf of your children.
There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.
A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.
Think? Why think! We have computers to do that for us.
Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone and you are God.
The purpose of life is not to be happy--but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.
If you're going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
Were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, thought to himself to say, this is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.
Everyman has the right to risk his own life in order to save it.
The hardest task in a girl's life is to prove to a man that his intentions are serious.
The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.
The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not entirely absurd, indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
I believe there are some still some people who think that a democratic State is scarcely distinguishable from the people. This, however, is a delusion. The State is a collection of officials, different for different purposes, drawing comfortable incomes so long as the status quo is preserved. The only alteration they are likely to desire in the status quo is an increase of bureaucracy and of the power of the bureaucrats.
To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim. The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
Marx's Capital is in essence a collection of atrocity stories designed to stimulate martial ardour against the enemy. Very naturally, it also stimulates the martial ardour of the enemy. It thus brings about the class-war which it prophesies.
The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
It is possible by long-continued practice not to know when we are sincere and when we are not.
It's the things in common that make relationships enjoyable, but it's the little differences that make them interesting.
There's nothing to match curling up with a good book when there's a repair job to be done around the house.
Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going.
