My particular worries on any given day - how I'm doing in the polls or what somebody is saying about me... for good or for ill - isn't particularly relevant. What is relevant is: What am I building that lasts?

Politics didn't lead me to working people. Working people led me into politics.

I'm not sure we have the right strategy in Afghanistan. Let me think this over for a few months.

That is another theme in the book [Dreams from My Father]. How do we exercise more empathy in our public discourse? How do we get the black to see through the eyes of the white? Or the citizen to see through the eyes of the immigrant? Or the straight to see through the eyes of the gay? That has always been a struggle in our politics.

This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand... That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are.

Angela Merkel has been an extraordinary partner for me and for the United States throughout my presidency.

Insist that the first question each of us asks isn't "What's good for me?" but "What's good for the country my children will inherit?