“Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom.”

The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.

History doesn’t always move in a straight line. Sometimes it zigs and zags.

A nation that can’t control its energy sources can’t control its future.

It’s important to make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank accounts, that drives our democracy.

When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.

In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.

We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.

While we breathe, we will hope.

I’m a warrior for the middle class.

The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women

The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women

You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.

Change is never easy, but always possible.

Who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense.

You might be locked in a world not of your own making, her eyes said, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.

I want people to find their inner depth.

Chastity is oftener owing to diffidence and shame, than to fortitude of reason or virtue.

However, everything has an end, everything passes away, even the hunger of people who have not eaten

With the ambitious, the failure of one expedient is the suggestion of another; but with the irresolute, defeat usually occasions abandonment of purpose.

Don’t be against things so much as for things.

Instead of loving your enemies, have no enemies to love.

To make discoveries, you have to be curious about why the universe is the way it is.

Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.