“All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.”

Communicating our questions, hopes, and fears in prayer makes them-even to ourselves-more open and clear.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.

We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face.

One of our nation’s greatest leaders of all time was Hubert Horatio Hornblower.

We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.

Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

Because (grandparents) are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations.

We cannot resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense.

We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.

The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

Life is just too short to go quail hunting with the wrong people.

Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.

The miracle is this – the more you give, the more you have.

I see my parents as tiny children who need love. I have compassion for my parents’ childhoods. I now know that I chose them because they were perfect for what I had to learn. I forgive them and set them free, and I set myself free.

Wounds are the means through which we enter the hearts of other people. They are meant to teach us to become compassionate and wise.

I give a portion of my time to helping others. It is good for my own health.

Tomorrow’s leaders will not lead dictating from the front, nor pushing from the back. They will lead from the centre – from the heart.

We can’t fight darkness with darkness. We have to find compassion, and embrace the darkness inside of us in order to understand it and, ultimately, to transcend it.

Compassion allows us to understand that, as citizens of the planet, we’re all in this together and that in order to ensure our survival we must hold and cultivate a new and larger vision of what’s possible for ourselves and for the human race as a whole.

Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us?