Read. Read. Read. Read. Read great books. Read poetry, history, biography. Read the novels that have stood the test of time. And read closely.

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.

Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

Never assume that people in positions of responsibility are behaving responsibly.

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

Books can change your life. Some of the most influential people in our lives are characters we meet in books.

My wife, the star I steer by.

Courage is contagious. If a leader shows courage, others get the idea.

When confronted with a birthday in a week I will remember that a book can be a really good present, too.

So at the end of this day, we give thanksFor being betrothed to the unknown.

Passion is what gets you through the hardest times that might otherwise make strong men weak, or make you give up.

Do you know that all great spurts in...progress came just after some unorthodox ideas or exotic impressions had penetrated into a closed system?

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

You can never have 'equality' between two things that are not equal by definition. And so, for example, you can have equality among 'people', but not between 'men' and 'women'.

I've got the hungries for your love and I'm waiting in your welfare line.

I have great faith in fools,— self-confidence my friends will call it.

I think it's really unfortunate that academics have been sidelined in most important policy debates.

The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end.