If all it took was someone proclaiming I believe Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins, and that was all there was to it, people wouldn't have to keep coming to church, would they.

We can still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace. So that’s what I strive to do and pray to do every day.

We now live in a world where the most valuable skill you can sell is knowledge. Revolutions in technology and communication have created an entire economy of high-tech, high-wage jobs that can be located anywhere there's an internet connection. And today, a child in Chicago is not only competing for jobs with one in Boston, but thousands more in Bangalore and Beijing who are being educated longer and better than ever before.

It still puts burden on some troops of ours who are there [in Afghanistan and Iraq] as advisors and facilitators.

Reading makes all other learning possible. We have to get books into our children's hands early and often.

The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy.

I do believe, separate and apart from any particular election or movement, that we are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an us and a them.