Paul Tsongas

Our destiny is greatness and we must return to its fulfillment.

You are Americans. You love this country. Together we are entrusted with the principles that represent mankind's greatest political and social achievement.

America is the sum of all our journeys as we search for our national community and our national culture.

From a viable economy to the full funding of Headstart, from a clean environment to true equality for women, from a strong military to a commitment to racial brotherhood, from schools that are honored to streets free of excessive violence.

No one on his deathbed ever said, I wish I had spent more time on my business.

Don't fear your mortality, because it is this very mortality that gives meaning and depth and poignancy to all the days that will be granted to you.

We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.

This land, this water, this air, this planet - this is our legacy to our young.

Thinking in generations also means enabling our young to have a decent standard of living.