"It was very clear to me in 1965, in Mississippi, that, as a lawyer, I could get people into schools, desegregate the schools, but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't have food, didn't have jobs, didn't have health care, didn't have the means to exercise those civil rights, we were not going to have success."

"I try to act out of faith."

"We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem."

"Children under five are the poorest age group in America, and one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers are poor during the years of greatest brain development."

"My mom was really vigorous about making sure that we saw things and that we questioned things. Education was so important to both of my parents."

"The pursuit of excellence requires knowing that the true master is an eternal student."

"A resilient spirit knows that the true master is an eternal student."

"I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted."