“I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.”

“If you desire to know or learn anything to your advantage, then take delight in being unknown and unregarded.A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons. To take no account of oneself, but always to think well and highly of others is the highest wisdom and perfection.”

“No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.”

“I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they've ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn't know, because I won't ever dare ask that question.”

“If optimism is the highest form of courage -- as I am beginning to believe it is -- then these students are all heroes.”

“The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.”