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.

We need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let them share in this great American dream that we have.

I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor - that if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy.

We've got to unite our country again, because we're stronger when we are united and we are weaker when we are divided.

Everybody should have a chance to rise. That's our philosophy in Ohio and that's my philosophy for America.

A leader has a sound program, has a good policy, and then brings people together to solve problems.

If you go into a room of 100-plus people, and you want to be the prince of darkness, you can be it. But I don't operate in the dark, I operate in the light.

Every time I go to Washington, I break out in a cold sweat. So I try not to spend too much time there.

I've always been underestimated. It's happened throughout my entire career.

Affirmative action has a negative effect on our society when it means counting us like so many beans and dividing us into separate piles.

You cannot build a little guy up by tearing a big guy down. Abraham Lincoln said it...

Repetition is the mother of perfection.

Revolution should be Syrian, cannot be revolution imported from abroad.

When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.

Faith is a real power, not just an expression of belief.

At my age, I don't think anyone is untouched by cancer.

This is a huge decision [to choose advisers and Secretary of State]. This is where he [Donald Trump] has the least experience and will have to rely on people with experience.

The patriarchal society has made women believe, first of all, you're only valid and valuable when you're young.

My grandfather is great. He's a great grandfather.

Don't you think that as a people, Americans have less poetry, real poetry, in their souls than any other nations?

Somehow I find it easier to inhabit characters if they are a little bit pathetic. I do seem to have an affinity with pathetic people.