Sidney Poitier became a star in part by helping black and white Americans negotiate their new relationship in the post-Civil Rights era.

Yes I think it's really important to acknowledge that Dr. King precisely at the moment of his assassination was re-conceptualizing the civil rights movement and moving toward a sort of coalitional relationship with the trade union movement.

The world is not going into concentric blocs of power. It is actually going into a diffusion of power with more centres of decision-making than ever in human civilisation. That requires you to place yourself in far more hubs of power than ever before.

We believe in a flexible union of free member states who share treaties and institutions and pursue together the ideal of co-operation to represent and promote the values of European civilisation in the world advance our shared interests by using our collective power to open markets and to build a strong economic base across the whole of Europe.

A great power has to have the discipline not only to go when necessary but to know when not to go. Getting involved in ethnic religious civil wars is a recipe for disaster.

The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals - its philosophers its poets and its artists.

What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others. His own good either physical or moral is not sufficient warrant.

The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire first a feeble spark next a flickering flame then a mighty blaze ever increasing in speed and power.

Either you think or else others have to think for you and take power from you pervert and discipline your natural tastes civilize and sterilize you.

Financial institutions the corporate world and civil society - all must uphold high standards of probity in their working. Only a genuine partnership between the Government and its people can bring about positive change to create a just society.

For the liberal state to accommodate a diversity of beliefs while having few positive convictions is one of the more admirable achievements of civilization.

Imagine a civilisation that's way in advance of us wants to communicate with us and assist us in our development. The information we provide to them must reflect our highest aspirations and ideals and not just be some crazy person's bizarre politics or religion.

There's a rule of thumb in politics. If you're at a point where you're complaining about the other guy being mean and unfair and uncivil that's probably a sign that you're losing.

I was in civil society long before I was ever in politics or my husband was ever even elected president.

Justice sir is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

As civilization advances poetry almost necessarily declines.

The limitation upon this mode of promoting peace lies in the fact that it consists in an appeal to the civilized side of man while war is the product of forces proceeding from man's original savage nature.

Our civilization is now in the transition stage between the age of warring empires and a new age of world unity and peace.

Standing as I believe the United States stands for humanity and civilization we should exercise every influence of our great country to put a stop to that war which is now raging in Cuba and give to that island once more peace liberty and independence.

The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.

Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.

He would see civilization in danger of perishing under the oppression of a gigantic paradox: he would see multitudes of people starving in the midst of plenty and nations preparing for war although pledged to peace.

I feel that my father's greatest legacy was the people he inspired to get involved in public service and their communities to join the Peace Corps to go into space. And really that generation transformed this country in civil rights social justice the economy and everything.

Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as our prince of peace of civil rights. We owe him something major that will keep his memory alive.

Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime.

If civilization is to survive we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples of all kinds to live together in the same world at peace.

Patriotism is an indispensable weapon in the defense of civilization against barbarism.

We do not consider patriotism desirable if it contradicts civilized behavior.