We cannot change the history of the past.

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.

I do lend my books, but I have to be a bit selective because my marginalia are so incriminating.” --Alison Bechdel

I am grateful to the Lord for granting me just what I needed.

Take the high road. No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be confronted with - don't go to that level.

In war nothing is impossible, provided you use audacity.

Load every rift with ore.

There's a hero if you look inside your heart. You don't have to be afraid of what you are.

Goodness makes greatness truly valuable, and greatness make goodness much more serviceable.

I would love to play your common, everyday guy, but I never get cast as that.

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.

If you're making abortion illegal and undermining the various things that will allow the prevention of that need, it can only be a situation that goes from bad to worse.