And it was from Boston that one in every six American families began their journey into the land of the free.

Tonight, I am pleased to announce that I have secured $1 million from the Convention Host Committee to fund the beautification of Boston's neighborhoods.

It's like an Alcatraz around my neck

One of our key strategies has been to restructure traditional high schools into small learning communities with personalized attention and a range of options.

Preparing our city to achieve its destiny will require strong leadership.

Here's what I see all across this great city - people working together to make Boston a better place to live and to raise children, to grow and pursue dreams.

I grew up with a Christmas tree, I'm going to stay with a Christmas tree.

Boston is safe. And we're going to keep it safe.

I am also committed to providing city employees with housing assistance.

The true privilege of being Mayor is that I have the opportunity to be everyone's neighbor.

Children need continuity as they grow and learn.

Even as we live with the knowledge that each day might be our last, we don’t want to believe it.

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

Now I was a tiger that neither pounced nor lay waiting between the trees. I became an unseen spirit.

I'm a control freak. If you're going to slap my name on something, I would like to control it.

Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls.

Maybe at the same time as I'm more confident today, I'm also more humble.

E-mails are the new herpes: You never get rid of them.

I'm a method actor as well as a method singer.

Some people pass through life soberly and religiously enough, without knowing way, or reasoning about it, but, from force of habit merely, go to heaven like fools.

Among absent lovers, ardor always fares better.