You are in charge of your own attitude whatever others do or circumstances you face. The only person you can control is yourself...worry more about your attitude than your aptitude or lineage.

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.

The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

It's time for greatness - not for greed. It's a time for idealism - not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.

The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children.

The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.

That’s exactly where they send entry-level diplomats. After you cut your teeth on a few civil wars and a famine or two, you might get lucky and be given a plum post somewhere in the SECOND World.

Patience is the highest asceticism.

It was easy to tell Jamie to move on, be happy with someone else. But she saw now that it would absolutely kill her to see him with another woman.

Our judgements about things vary according to the time left us to live -that we think is left us to live.

I do look forward to keeping in touch with the guys because we'll always be connected in people's minds.

'It's much better to understand than to be understood,' from my mom.

Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly – all else is desperation.

I don't think of my life as a cliche, but I'm a cliche eccentric. Complete with a strange name - I mean, who's named Val? How many Vals do you know? I mean, really?