“A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.”
“Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.”
“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.”
“There are plenty of recommendations on how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast. Most of them come down to this: Deny your responsibility.”
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”
“We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.”
“What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.”
“You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.”
“Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.”