“One of the most moral acts is to create a space in which life can move forward.”

“One can never go back. One always has to move forward.”

“To create a minimum standard of life below which no human being can fall is the most elementary duty of the democratic state.”

“. . . a nation is not an idea only of local extent, and individual momentary aggregation; but it is an idea of continuity, which extends in time as well as in numbers and in space. And this is a choice not only of one day, or one set of people, not a tumultuary and giddy choice; it is a deliberate election of ages and of generations; it is a constitution made by what is ten thousand times better than choice, it is made by the peculiar circumstances, occasions, tempers, dispositions, and moral, civil, and social habitudes of the people, which disclose themselves only in a long space of time. It is a vestment, which accommodates itself to the body. Nor is prescription of government formed upon blind, unmeaning prejudices—for man is a most unwise and a most wise being. The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment, is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.”

“yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways and move them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with startling heroism”

“The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.”