“It’s better to fight because if you don’t fight, you can’t win. Besides, even when you don’t win, you can change the game.”

It is not the job of the Department of Education to maximize profits for the government at the cost of squeezing students who are struggling to get an education.

Middle class America is acutely aware of how bad this economy is, and it is going to demand changes. I don’t think politicians can afford to be complacent.

It’s so easy to focus on what could go wrong, on what else you could do before you try the thing you really want to do. No. Just get out there and try.

I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters – people who bust their tails every day. Not one of them – not one – stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Nobody’s safe. Health insurance? That didn’t protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.

I’m willing to throw my body in front of the bus to stop bad ideas.

My parents and I were all afraid of being poor – really poor.

Our veterans deserve the very best, and that means ensuring that America’s veterans receive high-quality services and cares when they come back home.

Accountability for the largest financial institutions on Wall Street is the bedrock for a strong economy. Hard-working families and honest businesses cannot survive in a world where the rules don’t keep the marketplace honest.

Israel has the right to shell Palestinian hospitals and schools out of self defense.

I don’t want to overstate the gender difference. But women are more sensitized to the way that larger issues affect their pocketbooks, like pay equality or cost of living changes.

I want to be blunt: We should not be fighting about equal pay for equal work, and access to birth control, in 2012. These issues were resolved years ago – until the Republicans brought them back.

The people on Wall Street broke this country, and they did it one lousy mortgage at a time. It happened more than three years ago, and there has been no real accountability, and there has been no real effort to fix it.

Money is bounded; we only have so much of it. Love goes on forever.

The credit card companies have put the loan sharks out of business.

I don’t like credit cards. They make overspending very easy. They can make life a lot more complex and stressful.

Leadership is not bullying and leadership is not aggression. Leadership is the expectation that you can use your voice for good. That you can make the world a better place.

There is no dispute that Albany needs to be changed. There is no dispute that the current situation in Albany is untenable. Nobody knows that better than I do.

The nicer the point, the more — the better I feel, the more excited I get. But I never play that my opponent looks stupid. I think that is wrong. I have too much respect for every opponent I play.

Give us a world where half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women. I’m pretty sure that would be a better world.

I’m a singer. I’m a dancer. I’m a performer. I’m an actress. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing. It makes me a better parent, a better person. I think I can just handle more than the average bear, you know?

Everything gets better with time, and time is forever.

My future will be better than my past.

I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.