It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it.

We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.

Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of a national community. It's tough, difficult, not easy. But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny.

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.

We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.

What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.