First, recognize the mistake. The main thing is taking responsibility and being authentic.

Silence in the face of atrocity is not neutrality; silence in the face of atrocity is acquiescence.

What is most needed in Darfur is an international peacekeeping and protection presence, and this is what the Sudanese government most wants to avoid.

Success is not about who never fails. It is about who can spring - or even stagger - back up.

Violence against women isn't cultural, it's criminal. Equality cannot come eventually, it's something we must fight for now.

Without investing in the rule of law for the poor, none of the other investments we make will be sustainable.

It is easy to get used to the morning news, habituated. But don't. The morning news is yours to alter.

My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.

I like to think that as I get older I'm getting better at spending time with people who have qualities that make them worth spending time with.

Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.

Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

That's when the dream is so far off it seems like it will never happen. It can be most anything you want it to be.

Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity.

I would definitely line up for 'The Lord of the Rings.' I'm a huge 'Lord of the Rings' geek.

The world as we know it is falling apart at the seams, because it's an inadequate container for the truth of who we are.

Conscience is the internal perception of God's Moral Law.

Familiarity can no longer be a necessary condition for trust.

Principles are like seeds; they are little things which do much good, if the mind that receives them has the right attitudes.

Effort is the siamese twin of success

In an ideal world for me, school lunch would be free for everybody.