“It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.”

I am no big shot. I am not anybody’s boss. I want to be everybody’s servant.

One of the most serious problems that our country has inherited an unwillingness to talk to anyone who disagrees with us or who won’t accept, before a discussion, all the premises that we demand.

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human right violation on earth.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

I’ve never won an argument with my wife; and the only time I thought I had I found out the argument wasn’t over yet.

And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill – do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.

We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.

I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Throughout my life, I’ve seen the difference that volunteering efforts can make in people’s lives. I know the personal value of service as a local volunteer.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

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.

The intensity of a fire, or a heavy concentration, to be a leader, you have to be able to concentrate on that fire and move just as soon as it stops or the last round hits.

There are sometimes easier games and others harder, but the Champions League always requires enormous concentration.

Very few men can remain poised under an artillery concentration.

If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them.

I can’t concentrate when I’m thinking.

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.