you come to understand that history might be, as Thomas Carlyle put it, “a distillation of rumor, ” or, as Napoleon said, “a set of lies generally agreed upon

Dream it. Wish it. Do it.

I often say to my assistants, "Never trust anybody," but what I mean is that you should never trust someone else to do a job exactly the way you would want it done.

I don't believe in diets.

To retire to the monastery, or the woods, or the sea, is to escape from the sharp suggestions that spur on ambition.

And I think that Africa is making progress that the world needs to recognize and assist the continent to continue on that path.

Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate.

I could only achieve success in my life through self-discipline, and I applied it until my wish and my will became one.

Remember what Simonides said, that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.

We will live with racism for ever. But senses of self, senses of belonging, senses of us and of others? Those are up for grabs.

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think.