Paul Tsongas

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

“I came from a disadvantaged home. They were Republicans.”

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

“Our only weapons in this war of your lifetime are the weapons of the mind.”

“When George Bush used the Willie Horton ad, he knew what he was doing.”

“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.”

“I want to deploy the leadership to meet the challenges that face us and to restore America's greatness.”

“A commencement is a time of joy. It is also a time of melancholy. But then again, so is life.”

“That sense of sacredness, that thinking in generations, must begin with reverence for this earth.”

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

“Two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a democracy. It was based upon the simple, yet noble, idea that government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.”

“It was a myth that's often perpetuated at commencement that holds that only hope and promise lie beyond the halls of academe. Don't worry, be happy. Everything is fine.”

“My father's generation gave to my generation a land of wealth and purpose and world economic dominance.”

“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.”

“I have pretty much made up my mind to do this.”

“Let's try winning and see what it feels like. If we don't like it, we can go back to our traditions.”

“That's a good question. Let me try to evade you.”

“America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.”

“I am an American. I love this country.”