Know something about something. Don’t just present your wonderful self to the world. Constantly amass knowledge and offer it around.

I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.

It's an improvisation on a theme. You know where you want to go, but you don't know how to get there. It's not linear.

World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.

If a country denies it has AIDS, that country will inevitably become an even greater victim.

MEMRI allows an audience far beyond the Arabic-speaking world to observe the wide variety of Arab voices speaking through the media, schoolbooks, and pulpits to their own people. What one hears is often astonishing, sometimes frightening, and always important. Most importantly, it includes the newly-emerging liberal voices of reform and hope, as well as disturbing echoes of ancient hatreds. Without the valuable research of MEMRI, the non-Arabic speaking world would not have this indispensable window.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.