I am a bit odd. I am somewhat evangelical. But I am not crazy.

When the fabric of the universe becomes unknown, it is the duty of the university to produce weavers.

I often have said that to be a college president, you need a thick skin, a good sense of humor, and nerves like sewer pipes.

If people want to pigeon hole you then just view it as an opportunity to prove them wrong and show that you are different to what they think you are.

Intellectual curiosity drove Einstein to some of the world's most important discoveries.

I believe that it is higher education's purpose and calling to keep open the door to the American dream.

I spent the first 18 years of my life in the pastoral town of Vernal, Utah, in the shadows of the Book Cliffs and the Uinta Mountains.

So if a college education is indispensable, the challenge as I see it is how to make it more accessible.

To be sure, American higher education is a diverse ecosystem, comprising institutions of all sizes, price tags, and mission statements.

I believe everything learned in college is an answer to a question that someone has posed. Questions get posed differently and the answers that come back transport us to places we never knew existed.

Being president of a major public university is the most political nonpolitical office around.

Your life depends entirely on your reactions to the accountability that you are faced with.

Imperfection is the greatness of humanity

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

Someone told me just recently that poets are eulogists. It's their job, to eulogize. I didn't know that, but it makes sense. Because in almost every poem of mine there is a loss.

Proof that they do not understand the republic is that in their fine promises for universal suffrage, they forgot women.

I like birthdays. Every time someone is born, that's just like bringing more cake into the world.

God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.

My perfect Sunday is waking up at 10 - which, you know, those days are over for me - but waking up at 10, breakfast with children, hanging out with well-behaved children.

Reading is also a journey. It's a process of discovery.

There is no moment that isn't equivalent in value to any other moment. You have to surrender the little mind to the big mind, and turn what you want over to God.