Sacrifice

Service is the rent we pay for living on God's Earth.

As officers, you are about to be granted one of the greatest privileges and most sacred duties that our nation can bestow: to lead American service members.

When you are leaping without a safety net, people become your safety net and you become theirs.

My father spent the equivalent of a year's salary on my plane ticket to the US so I could attend Stanford. It was my first time ever on a plane.

Measure happiness not by what you do as work, but by what you give to others. It is the most important lesson and the deepest source of meaning I have found in life.

The most radical act we can take is to make a commitment to a particular thing — to a place, to a profession, to a cause, to a community, to a person.

It is not only the bomb or the bully that should keep us up at night — it is also the garden untilled and the newcomer unwelcomed, the neighbor unhoused and the prisoner unheard.

You will not always be the goal scorer. And when you are not, you better be rushing toward her.

Tear down this mirror that makes you always look at yourself and you will be able to look beyond this mirror and see the millions of people that need your help.

Just to be here, you guys sacrificed and left behind your family, your friends, and your social circles, and started over again from scratch. At your age, even the smallest ripple in a social circle can cause an emotional tidal wave.

You cannot flourish without a larger purpose. And that's lucky in a way, because our society cannot flourish without your reaching for a larger purpose, either.

We're the lucky ones, and we can never forget that we didn't get where we are today all on our own. We got here because of so many people who toiled and sweat and bled and died for us. We owe them.