“This is for everyone who has ever looked at the stars, or gazed from atop a hill, or across the sea and wondered...”
“Lawrence has a wonderful hill in it, with a university on top and the first time I ran away from home, I ran up the hill and looked across the world: Kansas wheat fields and the Kaw River, and I wanted to go some place, too. I got a whipping for it.”
“At least I don't look like a Christmas tree.""You look like the star atop the tree.”
“Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.”
“For everyone here in Ohio and across America who's been ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up -- this one is for you.”
“I looked at everyone and wondered where they came from, and who they missed, and what they were sorry for.”