“And if we succeed... If we somehow accomplish this thing that seems so impossible, it will be the most glorious victory imaginable. The Fourth of July will no longer be known only as an American holiday, but as the day when all the nations of the earth stood shoulder to shoulder and shouted: 'We will not lay down and die. We will live on! We will survive!' Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”

“Everyone loses faith at some point. Take me for example. I haven't spoken to God since your mother died... But sometimes, you have to stop and remember all the things you do have. You've got to be thankful.”

“The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.”

“Living in the modern age,death for virtue is the wage.So it seems in darker hours.Evil wins, kindness cowers.Ruled by violence and vicewe all stand upon thin ice.Are we brave or are we mice,here upon such thin, thin ice?Dare we linger, dare we skate?Dare we laugh or celebrate,knowing we may strain the ice?Preserve the ice at any price?”

“We could be something amazing- or we could end up destroying each other.”

“All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined those dead, those living, those generations yet to come that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength to the very survival of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.”

“We spend nine months in a nurturing darkness before we're born, and we aspire to the highest of all places when we die.”