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.

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.

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.

A truly great university is a nucleus of artistic expression. It fosters creative, critical thought, and serves as a platform for civil discourse.

The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.

Sometimes I wonder if there is any hope left for an Israeli-Palestinian discourse that is built on equality and liberty rather than a fruitless discourse of master and servant.

Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable.

If you need encouragement, give it. If you need love, give it.Whatever you need, give it away.

Art gives to you a new conception of reality, opens your mind, opens your heart, opens your desire of action.

Isolation is the dream killer.

Her mind lives tidily, apart from cold and noise and pain. And bolts the door against her heart, out wailing in the rain.

The reversal of a Supreme Court opinion is possible.

The Wonderbra is not a step forward for women. Nothing that hurts that much is a step forward for women.

I will never joke about old soldiers who try to get to reunions to talk over the war again. To talk of old times with old friends is the greatest thing in the world.