Government by blackmail is incompatible with democracy.

The forces that have worked hard to stoke populist anger against reform are the very ones that benefit from a health system which puts profits ahead of quality care for its patients.

If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.

Torture fails to make us safe, but it certainly makes us less free.

Torture, including practices like waterboarding, violates the legal and moral standards of all civilized nations.

Thousands die each year because they are uninsured or under-insured.

We do not need torture as an available instrument of interrogation.

If the minority is able to successfully undo the Affordable Care Act by blackmail, it will be the undoing of the democratic nature of our government.

While the notion that torture works has been glorified in television shows and movies, the simple truth is this: torture has never been an effective interrogation method.

It is not the role of Congress to decide legal cases between private parties. That is why we have courts.

Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe.

Sometimes just to touch the ground is enough for me, even if not a single thing grows from what I plant.

Everything flows nothing stays still.

The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever

I was not a very fearful kid, really.

I strongly wish for what I faintly hope; like the daydreams of melancholy men, I think and think in things impossible, yet love to wander in that golden maze.

I'm just content with myself, happy with myself.

Loneliness is more likely to lead to fussy housekeeping than to grand views of the Universe.

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

I always wanted to direct movies. That's what I set out to do. When I was a little kid I just dreamed of making movies, and I went to film school [at Northwestern University].