It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.

We get richer and richer in filthier and filthier communities until we reach a final state of affluent misery - crocus on a garbage heap.

All of us celebrate our values in our behavior.

The [nonprofit] sector enhances our creativity, enlivens our communities, nurtures individual responsibility, stirs life at the grassroots, and reminds us that we were born free.

What leaders have to remember is that somewhere under the somnolent surface is the creature that builds civilizations, the dreamer of dreams, the risk taker. And remembering that, the leader must reach down to the springs that never dry up, the ever-fresh springs of the human spirit.

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.