“I would like to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.”

I wake up some mornings hating me too.

I consider myself a progressive. I have a passion for people who work. To me, this is about forward looking versus backward looking. Ideological gradations are the wrong way to look at it.

Whose leadership, whose judgment, whose values do you want in the White House when that crisis lands like a thud on the Oval Office desk?

As big a problem as gun violence is for Chicago, it is not beyond our ability to solve. Ending this string of tragedies is our top priority as a city. We are infusing our police department with the manpower, technology and training to meet this challenge head on.

I’ve never been in a place where winning has hurt the ability to do anything.

You have a burden going into any campaign when you’re raising money to fund that effort because there’s always a desire to spend more money than you have.

When people told me ‘It’s great to be here’, they meant at the house, not with me.

Under Superintendent Johnson’s leadership, our police department is on a path to earn the respect of every community in the City of Chicago.

Israel has a security concern involving geography. But geography does not have the same value it did in 1967.

A strong economy depends on a strong middle class, but George Bush has put the middle class in a hole, and John McCain has a plan to keep digging that hole with George Bush’s shovel.

As individuals, we will be judged in our lives by the totality of our actions. Not one thing will stand out. And I think that’s how we get judged by our colleagues and that’s how we get judged by the good lord.

It is one thing to train officers on fighting crime. It is a whole other thing to train them to build friendships and relationships, which are integral to fighting crime. This takes time, effort, and patience on the part of police officers.

We can define the rules of police-citizen engagement, but everyday decisions will always be made by men and women in uniform, on the street, in the community, under extreme pressure, in a dangerous world where guns easily fall into the wrong hands.

I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president was important.

Because of the president’s leadership, every American will have access to affordable, quality health care.

I sometimes joke, Paula, even paranoid people have enemies.

Jealousy is a miserable feeling. It means you aspire to something that you cannot have. Even in love, it is better to leave, better not to waste time.

Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best.

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

Diminish the mass of evils that afflict the human species, increase enjoyment and well-being. And even if the new routes opened up could prolong the average life of mankind by only a few hours, or even a few days, then the scientist, too could aspire.

To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.

Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.