Our common language is English. And our common task is to ensure that our non-English-speaking children learn this common language.

I think we need to find out why the citizens of the world's wealthiest, most envied, most powerful country are so cynical, so distressed, so angry, so ticked of about so many things.

President Bush was widely ridiculed for consulting the Reverend Billy Graham before the Gulf war.

If we are surrounded by the trivial and the vicious, it is all too easy to make our peace with it.

True courage is mixed with circumspection, the kind of healthy skepticism that asks, 'Is this the best way to do this?' True cowardice is marked by chronic skepticism, which always says, 'It can't be done.'

Responsible persons are mature people who have taken charge of themselves and their conduct, who own their actions and own up to them--who answer for them.

It is our character that supports the promise of our future - far more than particular government programs or policies.