I'm not looking for a battle with anybody, neither the council nor our labor partners.

Let me be clear - no one is above the law. Not a politician, not a priest, not a criminal, not a police officer. We are all accountable for our actions.

I got to grow up with a mother who taught me to believe in me.

If you wave a flag, make it an American Flag.

We in Los Angeles, who have ourselves been helped to stand up - to recover and rebuild after a disaster - want to help the families and communities of the Gulf Coast,.

Actually, as president of the Conference of Mayors, we passed the Simpson-Bowles plan as a template, as a template, as a frame work for moving forward and the president has done the same.

You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate.

You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.

I'm not one of the people who have to be in public office.

We're not a homogeneous party, anymore than the Republicans are. But we are a party that I think has a plan to take us forward.

Again, if I was going to call Romney and the Republicans stupid, I'm certainly not going to call the Democrats and President Obama stupid.

One who experiences prasantta [blissful happiness] within, he will have prasantta [blissful happiness] externally. The mind is a mirror (reflection) for the external.

As long as the forest stood the Tchetchens were unconquerable... and it is literally the fact that they were beaten in the long run not by the sword but by the axe.

I've had a lot of experience building things, organizing things, a national scholarship program.

The Spanish government, having run completely out of money, secretly sold the Pyrenees to China, and is now separated from France only by traffic cones.

We are not free, it was not intended we should be. A book of rules is placed in our cradle, and we never get rid of it until we reach our graves. Then we are free, and only then.

Confederation is only yet in the gristle, and it will require five years more before it hardens into bone.

Just doing as well as you did last time is not good enough.

You may know God, but not comprehend Him.

Every book changes my writing because I'm always trying to do something I didn't do before. I try to do what's hard for me, what I haven't done in the past.

you don't need to be better than any one else you just need to be better than you used to be