Never answer a question from a farmer.

Never give up on anybody.

Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty.

There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.

We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.

Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity -- an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.