“The people of the Middle East share the desire for freedom. We have an opportunity – and an obligation – to help them turn this desire into reality.”

I was born in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I didn’t have a white classmate till we moved to Denver.

Differences can be a strength.

Every life is worthy and every life is capable of greatness. We have an obligation to make sure that opportunity for greatness is there.

Democracy is the most realistic way for diverse peoples to resolve their differences, and share power, and heal social divisions without violence or repression.

You will make a difference in the world, but not immediately. Your first obligation is to find something you like doing, because if you like doing it, you’ll do it well.

Self esteem comes from achievements. Not from lax standards and false praise.

People want to psychoanalyze me, but the fact is, I’m not that complicated. I’m pretty straightforward. And I’m not all that self-reflective, because I tend to be a doer.

So I think, if September 11 taught us anything, it taught us that we’re vulnerable, and vulnerable in ways that we didn’t fully understand.

It’s bad policy to speculate on what you’ll do if a plan fails when you’re trying to make a plan work.

When diplomacy has been exhausted, the Security Council must become involved. Questions about Iran’s nuclear activities remain unanswered, despite repeated efforts by the IAEA.

I firmly believe you never should spend your time being the former anything.

History’s long arc is different than the today’s headlines.

In America, with education and hard work, it really does not matter where you came from; it matters only where you are going.

The quicker we get about the business of reducing our reliance on oil the better.

Every life is capable of greatness.

The best armor against everything around you is to be well educated, to work hard, to be twice as good as if you had to be, to do languages and culture better.

How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers.

Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.

Do you know my friend that each one of us is a dark mystery, a maze of conflicting passions and desire and aptitudes?

Mastery is not a question of genetics of luck, but of following your natural inclinations and the deep desires that stirs you from within.

The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.

The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.