America is a melting pot, and education has been a mainspring for our democracy and freedom, a means of providing gifts of knowledge and opportunity to all citizens, no matter how humble their background, so they could climb higher, help build the American dream, and leave a better life for those who follow.

A strong nation is one that is loved by its people and, as Edmund Burke put it, for a country to be loved it ought to be lovely.

We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet.

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

America is to great to dream small dreams.

Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used.

Now, I happen to be an optimist.