They say I need to be seasoned; they say I need to be stewed. They say, 'We need to boil all the hope out of him -- like us -- and then he'll be ready.'

You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Keep exploring. Keep dreaming. Keep asking why. Don’t settle for what you already know. Never stop believing in the power of your ideas, your imagination, your hard work to change the world.

When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk.

Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.

Change is never easy, but always possible.

Don’t ever let anybody tell you that your efforts don’t matter or that your voice doesn’t count. Don’t ever believe that you can’t make a difference. You have.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.

Learning to stand in somebody else's shoes, to see through their eyes, that's how peace begins. And it's up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.

If somebody is different from you, that's not something you criticize, that's something that you appreciate.

It only takes one minute to find a really good book, but it can give you a lifetime of memories when you read a really good book that leaves you with lasting impression.

We’ve all got weaknesses. Me, for instance. I’m tragically funny and good-looking.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously if they be not altered for the better designedly.

And I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death.

I have understood that the most important things are tenderness and kindness. I can't do without them.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

It's easy to judge, to think we know for certain the right thing to do. Sometimes, it just isn't so clear.

Genuine wit implies no small amount of wisdom and culture.

It is precisely our job as Catholics to speak the truth as plainly and precisely as we can.