We had a farewell dinner for some of my senior staff, and generally everybody likes to talk about how cool I was.

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.

We all operate on different levels of awareness. Half the time I don't know what I'm doing.

People understand that the economy is rigged. They're working longer hours for low wages. All new income and wealth, almost all, is going to the people on top.

I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing.

When you feel your book is the height of irrelevance you can return to the excitement of the daily news.

Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.

Whenever the press quits abusing me, I know I'm in the wrong pew.

Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.

How many persons must there be who cannot worship alone since they are content with so little.

To make any gain some outlay is necessary.

I normally don't regret. I enjoy everything, even if it's bad or good.