“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”

“When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.”

“A lot of the things that have been accomplished in science have been accomplished on the basis of ignorance … in the sense that you import into the science people from outside. Because once you have an established science, it has got its high priests — the guys who know everything that will work or won't work. And they don't want to be bothered. So you have to have a challenge. And the great thing is that young people are ignorant, and we should catch them before they turn into the priesthood. So I think that science should have a much more daring approach.”

“Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.”

“People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.”

“Workers have kept faith in American institutions. Most of the conflicts which have occurred have been when labor's right to live has been challenged and denied.”

“When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.”

“The world is filled with people who are no longer needed -- and who try to make slaves of all of us -- and they have their music and we have ours.”

“Losing the people who have been estranged from your life, at a very difficult time, is the most useful and important gift they could have given you.”