"The test of character in leadership is how one behaves in moments of unvarnished power. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds."

"The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it."

"The canvas of imagination has no boundaries except those imposed by fear. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a profound truth that ethics is not a doctrine written in marble, but a daily standard lived in conscience — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy, just allowing myself to tell jokes, allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories."

"Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future."

"It's often safer to be in chains than to be free."

"The paradox of freedom is that the true master is an eternal student."