The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.
Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.
Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.
Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.
Too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption.
Our laws were not designed to accommodate three or four thousand refugees coming here per day. Our laws were designed for people to be screened in a foreign country, carefully catalogued, and brought here a few at a time. This just didn’t happen.
Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.
During the 1960s, we used twice as much oil as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind’s previous history.
Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.
We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.
Spirit is like the wind, in that we can’t see it but can see its effects, which are profound.
Each of us must rededicate ourselves to serving the common good. We are a community. Our individual Fates are linked; our futures intertwined; and if we act in that knowledge and in that spirit together, as the Bible says: “We can move mountains.”
All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.
And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill – do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.
The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.
When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.
It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.
The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.
For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.