The American people cannot close their eyes to abuses of human rights and injustice, whether they occur among friend or adversary or even on our own shores.

I can't claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don't know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.

The arts and humanities teach us who we are and what we can be. They lie at the very core of the culture of which we're a part.

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession... and I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

Abraham Lincoln freed the black man. In many ways, Dr. King freed the white man. How did he accomplish this tremendous feat? Where others - white and black - preached hatred, he taught the principles of love and nonviolence.

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.

We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.