Usually when you try to accomplish something you're almost never judged kindly by your contemporaries. I think that's true for all great leaders. If you look back, they were almost all significantly unpopular or had tremendous opposition they faced because of what they were trying to do. Show less «

Ultimately, the dignity that my grandfather and father had was showing up every day and providing for their families. The challenges they faced were very basic. A tough day for me is if I lose an election or get a bad story in the paper. A tough day for my dad was they might be late on the rent. A tough day for my grandfather might have meant his daughters didn't eat. Show less «

I think the bigger challenge that we face, and that we continue to face, is that we have not done a good enough job of communicating to people what conservatism is. In fact, we've allowed a myth to take hold in the minds of some that conservatism is about helping the people who have 'made it' and not about helping the people who are trying to make it. I think we have a very compelling argument, which happens to be true: the people who have made it - billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations - they may not like big government but they can afford to deal with it. They can hire the best lawyers in America and try to figure out the loopholes and the best lobbyists to create them. Show less «

There were some in politics who believed that all you had to do was to be the alternative to the incumbent and you would win. But I never believed in that. I've always believed that you were better on offense that you were on defense. You were much better for being for something than against someone. Show less «

What make America special is that there are people who are not rich who are happy. What has made us different here is that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. Show less «

It took the telephone 75 years to reach 100 million users. It took "Candy Crush" one.

I don't know how inspiring I am to people on the left, but I'm not a big believer in transformative people in politics. There are people that have an historic opportunity to speak the truth and take on issues of historic moment. That's not something you can choose to be. That's something that just happens and falls on your lap, usually during periods of extreme trial. And I don't think any of us want to experience extreme trial for our country. Show less «

A half-century has passed since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to awaken our nation's conscience. His vision was simple yet profound: that America must fulfill the promise made in her founding documents by allowing every citizen to access their God-given right..I have taken my own children to the Lincoln Memorial and shown them where Dr. King spoke to the unfulfilled promise of our nation. Standing in that place I was filled with pride to know my children live in a nation where the cultural landscape is dramatically different from the one that Dr. King saw just fifty years before. He reminded us that opportunity and freedom are American ideals, belonging to no singular demographic. His message and legacy must live all around us as we move toward America's brightest days. Show less «