In our own lives, let each of us ask — not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask —not just how can government help, but how can I help?

Because of the realities of human nature, perfect peace is achieved in two places only: in the grave and at the typewriter.

The language of politics is poetry, not prose. Jackson is poetry. Cuomo is poetry. Dukakis is a word processor.

With all our differences, whenever we are confronted with a threat to our security we are not then Republicans or Democrats but Americans; we are not then the fifty states but the United States.

I never leave a game before the last pitch, because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen.

People are persuaded by reason, but moved by emotion; [the leader] must both persuade them and move them.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.