Perhaps the most striking feature of the [nonprofit] sector is its relative freedom from constraints and its resulting pluralism.

The play of conflicting interests in a framework of shared purposes is the drama of a free society. It is a robust exercise, and often a noisy one. It is not for the faint-hearted, or the tidy-minded.

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.

Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.

A prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive.

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

We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure.