America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

I swear that girl was born with a pen in her hand, the moon in her hair, and stars in her soul.

By reading great stories, you will renew your mind.

There is no need to worry about whether you are capable of manifesting what you want. The truth is, the universe already is providing you exactly what you have asked.

That unthinkable, adult truth: that need is not transitive, that one may need without oneself being needed.

I've never had an interest, but baseball looks abnormal.

Humor is the oxygen of children's literature. There's a lot of competition for children's time, but even kids who hate to read want to read a funny book.

Charlestoning is hard. People were fit in the '20s to be able to do that. I guess they didn't sit in front of their computers all day.

For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera.

The gods give no gifts without hooks embedded.

We've been raised to compete, to want more! More! More! It's a way of life. It's about greed.