All the leadership positions that I have had have one common denominator: none has required that I give up my science work.

One of the over-riding things for many who grow up in poverty is the simple desire to escape. I think it was sort of obvious to me that escape had to be through education.

Those who deny any group of people human rights are really denying the humanity of that group - and their own.

Look forward with confidence and backwards with attitude.

When you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, don’t afraid to burn the haystack to save yourself from spending half your life picking through strands of straw.

I don't think I really have a talent for movie acting.

Some of the finest moral intuitions come to quite humble people. The visiting of lofty ideas doesn't depend on formal schooling.

Farmers only worry during the growing season, but townspeople worry all the time.

The one stream of poetry which is continually flowing is slang.

I've always admired your rather formidable will, your refusal to back away from difficulties, but sometimes strength isn't about perseverance. Sometimes it's about knowing when to quit.

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all barren--and so it is; and so is all the world to him who will not cultivate the fruits it offers.

He who loves his enemies betrays his friends; this surely is not what Jesus meant.