I'm not a mediator or a negotiator. I don't want to be one.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

The enemy of love is not hate it is apathy.

When you learn not to want things so badly life comes to you.

The more accurately one can illuminate a particular human experience, the better the work of art.

...this initiation ceremony, known as 'signing the Official Secrets Act', has no legal force; everyone is bound by the Act whether they sign the form or not.

I think any good singer needs to be a good actor. You have to be able to tell the story.

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

The First Amendment...begins with the five loveliest words in the English language: 'Congress shall make no law'.

I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do. I did not shoot - not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees - that's the last thing I remember.

There were two ways of looking at the world, but only one when you are starving.

South Carolina is a great place to be from.