When I've sent young men and women into harm's way, I always understand that that is the last resort, not the first resort.

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.

Things done for self don’t count in living an effective life

I didn’t spend my whole summer training with Anwar and him on a deserted island in the Baltic sea to stand here and do nothing.

Deserted libraries hold the shades of writers who worked within, and are haunted by their absence.

My body is a cage that keeps me from dancing with the one I love, but my mind holds the key.

Real fulfillment, for the man who allows absolutely free rein to his desires, and who much dominate everything, lies in hatred.

I spent a lot of my life schlepping around New York with people not doing things for me.

The idea is to be healthy, not to wear yourself down or to try and be a twig or change yourself drastically.

It is human to search for the theory of everything and it is superhuman to find it.

It is safe to be me. I love life. I am always safe and secure. I move forward in life with joy and ease. All is well in my world.

Books aren't lumps of paper, but minds on shelves.