“Being a teacher is back-breakingly difficult work. It is also extremely important work.”

“Being superintendent or the superintendent's chief of staff is important work, but there's no chance it's as difficult as being a teacher, and I hesitate to say that it's as important.”

“In shuttering Yucca Mountain, Obama makes it extremely likely that nuclear power in the United States will continue its long, slow, and extremely welcome death.”

“Republican presidents talk about freedom. Democratic presidents talk about equality.”

“The pathological degree to which former Vice President Dick Cheney operated in secrecy led to government abuses that we'll probably spend years learning about.”

“Within the narrow confines of Permanent Washington - the journalists, lobbyists, and congressional lifers who are the city's avatars of centrism and continuity - Ford is considered the beau ideal o...”

“We must seize every opportunity we can to speak the truth and proclaim peace. Especially now. There's so little time for many.”

“I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck.”

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait ...”

“I love and care for everyone because I know the pain of being unloved and uncared.”

“I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”

“Do only work that matters, and you will end up pleasing those who are important enough to care about it.”

“We sit for a few more moments, although there's really nothing left to say. This is new to me, too, an entire conversation that takes place in silence, because the heart has its own language. I wil...”

“I'm always amazed at anyone's interest in what I have to say.”

“The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.”