“Light at the end of the tunnel? We don’t even have a tunnel; we don’t even know where the tunnel is.”

Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.

We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.

It’s the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done.

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

Our objective in South Vietnam has never been the annihilation of the enemy. It has been to bring about a recognition in Hanoi that its objective – taking over the South by force – could not be achieved.

You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.

To sustain an environment suitable for man, we must fight on a thousand battlegrounds. Despite all of our wealth and knowledge, we cannot create a redwood forest, a wild river, or a gleaming seashore.

If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.

The job, of course, will never be finished. For a nation, as for an individual, education is a perpetually unfinished journey, a continuing process of discovery.

In a thousand unseen ways we have drawn shape and strength from the land.

Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement.

A good president does with executive power what Pablo Picasso did with paint. He takes bills into new and slightly discomfiting territory. He puts extra eyes on policies. He moves the mouth of the Supreme Court from where it should be to where it must be.

Heck by the time a man scratches his behind, clears his throat, and tells me how smart he is, we’ve already wasted fifteen minutes.

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

I am proud to be a member of a party that opens its doors to all men–and closes its hearts to none.

Happiness is not the end of life: character is.

I shall need to sleep three weeks on end to get rested from the rest I’ve had.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

It’s not the end. It’s the beginning.

But even if I’m left high and dry at the end of this wild journey, just taking it is a great feeling.

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.

Stop romanticizing people. Otherwise you will end up loving someone who only exists in your head.

Women are like cars: we all want a Ferrari, sometimes want a pickup truck, and end up with a station wagon.