If you're hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate. You'll get the same kind of feeling and you won't have to pay.

I have been uplifted by the extraordinary power of the American heart - by those armies of compassion, who are willing to cross town or cross the globe to minister to those they've never met and will never see again.

All you need to know is this. You can never go wrong by voting for a bill that fails, or against a bill that passes.

What we dedicate today is not a memorial to war, rather it's a tribute to the physical and moral courage that makes heroes out of farm and city boys and that inspires Americans in every generation to lay down their lives for people they will never meet, for ideals that make life itself worth living.

Sure, losing an election hurts, but I've experienced worse. And at an age when every day is precious, brooding over what might have been is self-defeating. In conceding the 1996 election, I remarked that "tomorrow will be the first time in my life I don't have anything to do." I was wrong. Seventy-two hours after conceding the election, I was swapping wisecracks with David Letterman on his late-night show.

The difference between possible and impossible is hard work and commitment.

I think it's OK to talk about your military service, but there's a fine line between, you know, too much and just about right.