Most people are servants of their passions, but the truly free person is the one who can control his desires. When the sages taught "Only one involved in Torah is truly free" (Pirkei Avos 6:2), they meant to say that only Torah allows one to free himself from the shackles of desire and to truly exercise free choice. Without Torah, one is not free at all, he is a slave, controlled by a master foreign to his better instincts. While intellectually he might have correct ideas of how to live, ultimately his master - his passion - will force him to act otherwise.

Excerpt from: The Torah Treasury pg. 146

"Intelligent people know of what they speak; fools speak of what they know."

- Minchas Shabbos Pirkei Avos 3:18 / Ethics Of The Fathers

Intolerance lies at the core of evil.
Not the intolerance that results
from any threat or danger.
But intolerance of another being who dares to exist.
Intolerance without cause. It is so deep within us,
because every human being secretly desires
the entire universe to himself.
Our only way out is to learn
compassion without cause. To care for each other
simple because that 'other' exists.

- Rabbi Menachem Mendle

“If you believe that you can damage, believe you can fix.”

– Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

“One grain of intelligence can overcome the world and all its temptations” -- Rebbe Nachman

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

Golda Meir

"I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations … They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern."

- John Adams, Second President of the United States
(From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society)