Civility is not about dousing strongly held views. It's about making sure that people are willing to respect other perspectives.

There are words bandied about that are being misused - words like 'socialism,' words like 'communism,' words like 'fascism.

No activity I know is more of a confidence builder and at the same time more 'humility training' than wrestling.

Iraqis have held elections and have recently put together their government, all encouraging developments.

There's probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.

It is hard to cement any relations with any country based on promises that may not be deliverable.

A government of, by and for the people is obligated to conduct the nation's business in a manner that respects dissent.

The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times.

History provides a sense of where we've been and lessons that can be taken forward.

The majority of U.S. high school students don't know within 50 years when the Civil War occurred.

America is very decentralized in how it supports the humanities, unlike European countries where virtually everything stems from the central government.

Women think that they can make sad things go away by knowing the reason that they happened.

You own your feelings. You own your thoughts. You control both. No one has the right to any of it—to any of you without your permission.

I've yet to find another soul who believes in me with the same fervency as my mother.

People love dogs. This is, I hope, the least surprising sentence you will read in this book. I myself have had long discussions with my dog friends, and by that I mean my friends who are dogs.

We get talent and scale from mergers.

Reality in our century is not something to be faced.

Time is everything. Anything you want, anything you accomplish - pleasure, success, fortune - is measured in time.

My mom was there, in some form, in some sense, in some universe. My mom was still my mom, even if she only lived in books and door locks and the smell of fried tomatoes and old paper. She lived.

Each of us must do massive right thinking, take massive right action and get massive right results, right here, right now.

If you share in a heart-felt sorrow, you can lighten the load of a friend. Sometimes facing the burden together can mend two broken hearts in the end.