From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and influenced our national culture and our national character.

Congress should be forward thinking in the policies we set, instead of waiting until catastrophe looms.

Education brings about opportunity, and in turn inspiration.

Every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality education.

It is our duty and our privilege to keep America moving forward.

Our top focus - protecting our Nation - must go beyond homeland preparedness; America will only be secure if we deal with threats before they happen, not just after they happen.

The notion that you have a blind trust but you can tell your trustee when to sell stock in it just doesn't make any sense. It means you have a seeing eye trust and not a blind trust. It's ridiculous.

The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

America enjoys the best health care in the world, but the best is no good if folks can't afford it, access it and doctor's can't provide it.

This legislation confronts the human truth that the need for clean water knows no borders, and proper management and intervention can be a currency for peace and international cooperation.

Space offers extraordinary potential for commerce and adventure, for new innovations and new tests of will. As Americans, we can't help but reach for the stars. It's our nature. It's our destiny.

Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.

The ink of a pen is simply the blood of a heart

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands.

We don't sign superstars, we make them.

Not every effort at loving difficult people will have a positive ending... We don't love people in hopes of a happy ending. We love them because it's the right thing to do.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

All my days have I grown up among the Sages and I have found naught better for a man than silence.

Opinion is not knowledge. You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.

I get no respect... I tell you, when I was born, the doctor smacked my mother

Lend less than you owe.