We cannot resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.

Participating in a sisterhood with other women is hugely important in my life and a source of joy.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.

Be this thy brazen bulwark, to keep a clear conscience, and never turn pale with guilt.

You get religion as your hair turns grey.

The incurable ills are the imaginary ills.

Al Gore is an heir to the old czars and commissars. He never saw a regulation he didn't like.

Turning the thermostat down is something that I do pretty reluctantly. I like to be able to walk around in whatever I fancy at home.

If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.

June, July, all through the warm months she hibernated like a winter animal who did not know spring had come and gone.