It's appropriate to celebrate public service, and the thoughtful people who choose to serve. They symbolize what is good and decent about this historic citizen legislature, and we thank them.

We discussed politics, but we also talked about the importance of hard work, personal responsibility, living within your means, keeping your word. Those lessons stay with you throughout your life.

Some of the most important conversations I've ever had occurred at my family's dinner table.

Politics is a contest among people of diverse backgrounds and philosophies, advocating different solutions to common problems. The system only works when principled, energetic people participate.

I don't know what leadership is. You can't touch it. You can't feel it. It's not tangible. But I do know this: you recognize it when you see it.

Leadership is about doing what you know is right - even when a growing din of voices around you is trying to convince you to accept what you know to be wrong.

I support stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research.

Serving in Congress has been the honor of a lifetime.

We have no more fundamental obligation in government than to ensure the safety of our citizens.

Thoughtful people of different political philosophies can disagree, but in a very agreeable manner.

I generally believe in polls. Scientific polls are accurate.

Our knowledge of life is limited to death

The greatest desire is the desire to be free. The greatest freedom is the freedom to desire.

Part of being a conscious human being, is having an intention. And if you put an intention into whatever you do, it’s definitely going to be more satisfying in the end

Our country must be strong enough to solve problems, and that means we must learn how to work together again.

The tropical rain forests are a telling example. Once cut down, they rarely recover. Rainfall drops, deserts spread, the climate warms.

I'm on the pursuit of awesomeness, excellence is the bare minimum.

I would have any one, who really and truly has leisure and ability, make verses. I think it a more refining and happy-making occupation than any other pastime accomplishment.

When the police came, they found my brother asleep on the roof. Nobody knows how he got there.

To me, the script is a living, breathing organism. Comedy is something that is ever-changing and ever-flowing with the vibe and the mood of the movie.

It's not that I don't have opinions, rather that I'm paid not to think aloud.