Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.

With respect to our friends in the [Iraq] region, each has its own system, each will have to make its own judgment as to whether it will change, how fast it will change, and we hope that we can help influence them as to how change comes about and what change might be better for them than other forms of change.

If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.

We hope that more assistance will be available to the nations of the region, to include Egypt, on the three pillars that I discussed today: civic society development, education and economic development.

Nobody wants to be in a mediocre organization. You don't have the same energy flowing through.