It is helpful to think of people as having two fundamental motivations: the desire to see ourselves as honest, good people, and the desire to gain the benefits that come from cheating - on our taxes or on the football field.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.
When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.
When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people.
Surround yourself with good people. People who are going to be honest with you and look out for your best interests.
You definitely want your kids to understand their heritage, but I don't want my kids to just focus on being black. They are people. I don't want them to judge other people or to be judged. I want them to be good people, so good people will treat them accordingly. I preach that to my kids and everything else falls into place.
In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.