If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.

Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

Never assume that people in positions of responsibility are behaving responsibly.

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

Books can change your life. Some of the most influential people in our lives are characters we meet in books.

My wife, the star I steer by.

Courage is contagious. If a leader shows courage, others get the idea.

Belief is otiose reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.

If you fail, don’ quit.Try again, and again but with much enthusiasm and continuous effort.You will soon master the art and skills needed to succeed.

Vision, the hallmark of leadership, is less a derivative of spreadsheets and more a product of the mind called imagination.

What you feel doesn’t matter in the end; it’s what you do that makes you brave.

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror

I dreamed you were standing in this dark place and you touched these dead flowers and they lit up like they were electric or something. Electric lilies. Lighting up the Valley.

I was a Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan fan growing up.

Remember that all things are only opinion and that it is in your power to think as you please.

Contrary to what President Obama said in his inaugural address, going on Medicare and food stamps does not strengthen us. Just ask people who are fourth-generation welfare recipients.

Damn these human beings; if I had invented them I would go hide my head in a bag.