Philosophical

What is certain — what has always been certain — is the ability to shape that destiny. That is what makes us different. That is what makes us Americans — our ability at the end of the day to look past all of our differences and all of our disagreements and still forge a common future.

Education has a public value. Your education will not only bring you a bigger paycheck. It will enable you to be a better fellow citizen, more productive, better able to participate in solving the challenges I and my peers have not been able to conquer.

Dreaming during turbulent times indeed takes courage, but an even greater valor is required once those dreams are fulfilled.

We should define the world by its opportunities rather than by its dangers.

Life is harsh and sometimes even ruthless. Only the tough survive. That is one strand of thinking. The other says: humankind is a species of designers, problem solvers, and seekers. We don't have to accept our follies and our missteps.

The answers are not that hard. They just sometimes appear like a stick when they are actually a snake, or appear like a snake when they're actually a stick.

We're all strapped in, seated together on a gigantic ball whirling around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour, nested in a galaxy hurtling through the depths of space and time at 1.3 million miles per hour.

What if I told you that you are about to embark on a great adventure, that you will be given all the proper equipment for this adventure — food, clothing, shelter. And what if I told you further that you will have about eight decades to complete this adventure, and that every day you will be able to discover something new along your path.

The kind of ideas she lives with. Think of it. Not what happens to her, not love affairs or good career breaks, but what she thinks about.

Education is about absorbing what others have learned and created and believe, but it is also about our responses to those concepts and those convictions.

The world is not going to issue you an engraved invitation to this life. You've already received an engraved invitation to this life. You've already been asked to attend.

Pretending is not just play. Pretending is an imagined possibility.