Democracy can only spring from within a nation itself, only from the hearts and minds of its people.

If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

Life without risks is not worth living.

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.

Isn't it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?

Sometimes, flying feels too godlike to be attained by man. Sometimes, the world from above seems too beautiful, too wonderful, too distant for human eyes to see .

I would rather live one day in Maui than one month in New York.

In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.

If one took no chances, one would not fly at all. Safety lies in the judgment of the chances one takes.

Living in dreams of yesterday, we find ourselves still dreaming of impossible future conquests.

The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.

The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing - and then marry him.

If reading isn't about communication, it is, in the end, about sharing. But a deferred and fiercely selective kind of sharing.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean threatening the freedom of others.

Well, American composers are the best composers. At this time in the world, we are where the energy is. We are the most diverse, the most iconoclastic, the most maverick, and the most skillful.

Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

Stick with your own perception of yourself-living in your own world-and letting your reality, not the reality presented by other people or particular situations, control your performance.

Mothers will be fishing kids out of obscure cubby-holes for years!

Unlike Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, I never voted to provide taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood.

Tell a person they are brave and you help them become so.