There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the two do not line up, you make a choice.

We all have two things in common, no matter who we are: We were born and we are going to die.

You're not going to get to college - you're not even going to be qualified, even to go to a community college, if you don't address the basic problem of literacy in America. And there's no reason - no reason - for us to have that problem.

the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.

The basis of everything, of all knowledge, is the ability to read.

It’s funny. I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,” he said. “You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.

You are not your past.