If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.

By a series of violent shocks, the nations in succession have struggled to shake off the Past, to reverse the action of Time and the verdict of success, and to rescue the world from the reign of the dead.

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.

Businesses should be focused on business, and social responsibility should be government responsibility.

Democracy may mean something more than a theoretically absolute popular government, but it assuredly cannot mean anything less.

Democracy requires an informed citizenry able to question its government.