About Ben Carson

To give a taste as to what Carson’s book is all about, below are the 10 most popular quotes from “One Nation, ” ranked in descending order by number of readers highlights based on Amazon Kindle’s “popular highlights” feature:

1. ”The real key to staying cool and calm is to relinquish selfishness and always consider the feelings of others.”

2. ”[...if we ever came up with an excuse, she [Carson's mother] always said, “Do you have a brain?” And if the answer was yes, then she said, “Then you could have thought your way out of it.” It doesn’t matter what John or Susan or Mary or anybody else did or said. And it was the most important thing she did for my brother and myself.] Because if you don’t accept excuses, pretty soon people stop giving them, and they start looking for solutions. And that is a critical issue when it comes to success.”

If you don’t accept excuses…people stop giving them, and they start looking for solutions.

3. ”We all have choices in the way we react to the words we hear. Our lives and the lives of all those around us will be significantly improved if we choose to react positively rather than negatively.”

4. ”Our nation’s founders felt very strongly that our system of government could only survive with a well-informed and educated populace.”

5. ”All citizens need to arm themselves with a basic knowledge of American history and stay abreast of current events, analyzing them with respect to history. Knowledge is power and at a time when the people are becoming increasingly impotent while the government grows larger and more powerful, it is vital that we arm ourselves with knowledge.”

6. ”Dr. King concluded: ‘Not environment, not heredity, but personal response is the final determining factor in our lives. And herein lies our area of responsibility.’”

7. ”As individuals, we can educate ourselves and our children, cultivate the art of compromise, pray for wisdom, and hold our representatives accountable. Each of us can positively affect our nation just by making ourselves (and those in our spheres of influence) aware of the fact that we are being used as pawns by those who try to tell us what we should think as opposed to using our own common sense.”

8. ”Many well-meaning Americans have bought into the PC speech code, thinking that by being extra careful not to offend anyone we will achieve unity. What they fail to realize is that this is a false unity that prevents us from talking about important issues and is a Far Left strategy to paralyze us while they change our nation.”

9. ”Totalitarianism always starts with restrictions on the rights of others. We must avoid this at all costs. George Washington even said, ‘If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.’”

“Totalitarianism always starts with restrictions on the rights of others.”

10. ”Saul Alinsky advised his followers to level sharp attacks against their opponents with the goal of goading them into rash counterattacks that would then discredit them. To avoid falling into this trap, those of us who are interested in civil discussion should prepare ourselves to refrain from reacting in fear or anger to those who disagree with us or even attack us.”