Moral power is probably best when it is not used. The less you use it the more you have.

No one who's white thinks he's innocent. No one who's black thinks he's guilty.

We think it is complicated to change the world. Change comes little by little. Nothing worthwhile can happen in one generation.

To find people who don't want anything is rare.

I would define morality as enlightened self-interest...That old Platonic ideal that there are certain pure moral forms just isn't where we are.

Any racial reconciliation we've had in this country has come not out of confrontation but out of a spirit of reconciliation. If we continue to practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we'll eventually end up with a land of people who are blind and toothless.

There is a sense in which the United States Ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat, rather than a thermometer. So I'm going to be actively working... for my own concerns. I have always had people advise me on what to say, but never on what not to say.