You can have all the capabilities; if you don't have the quality people, you don't have much.

History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow.

If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president.

And this - this board was - was impanelled in 1951. And it's gone through ups and downs in how the secretaries have used it. But I have put a premium on that advisory board.

Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun.

The modern rise of Alzheimer's Disease in the twentieth century is not a sign of failure. It's a sign of success. Success in living long enough to see that disease expressed.

Art could be said to be a symbol of the universe, being linked with that absolute spiritual truth which is hidden from us in our positivistic, pragmatic activities.

All of us have a dormant spark of divinity in us which has to be fanned into flame by yoga.

When we work to end childhood hunger, we are giving our love to kids who need it so much they will never ask for it.

Once someone's hurt you, it's harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn't stop you from wanting them.

[My favourite song is] "All Along the Watchtower." The Jimi Hendrix cover.

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance.

Obviously, anyone in contradiction with authority must possess equivalent knowledge and additional fact in order to sustain his argument.

My library card. Every hurdle I've faced, I have researched my way over at a library. I'm grateful for that part of the American spirit that believes every citizen should have access to books.