We have a very deep concern about the destruction of the neighborhood — Jimmy Carter

"I obviously hoped that everything that I found would make a difference, … It ended up being way behind my wildest dreams."

"Any system of economics is bankrupt if it sees either value or virtue in unemployment. We simply cannot check inflation by keeping people out of work.."

"Weve made a major expansion in what is called countercyclical revenue sharing to focus into the most deprived urban ghetto, unemployed areas, to be administered by Patricia Harris. And Ive already signed into law a $4 billion public works bill. Under a new urban program that we are proposing, the Secretary of HUD, Patricia Harris, will have the authority to target large amounts of this money, in her judgment, on areas that are the most needy. For a long time in the past whenever a Federal program was approved by the Congress and the Republican Presidents, a large portion of that money went to areas where the need was least, in the suburban areas for housing and jobs went to areas with already low unemployment. We have reversed that now, and were going to send the Federal money where its needed most. Another of my first tasks has been to reorganize the Federal Government and to handle discrimination complaints faster and more effectively than we have in the past. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now has a backlog of 130,000 cases. Many of these cases arent considered for 3 years. There are seven different Federal agencies that are supposed to be taking care of these needs, these discriminatory practices. Thats not been done yet. Because these cases have dragged on so long, quite often the witnesses have disappeared and the victims have given up. This is one of our top priorities--to reorganize the structure. Its not an easy or quick thing that can be done, and the person in charge of it is Eleanor Holmes Norton."

"I appreciate the chance to come. Youve probably noticed that I was a little late in arriving. I met Alex Haley outside, and I made the mistake of saying, "Alex, hows your family?" Unfortunately, he told me. And it took a while to get in."

"A party with a narrow vision, a party that is afraid of the future, a party whose leaders are inclined to shoot from the hip, a party that has never been willing to put its investment in human beings who are below them in economic and social status."

"If there was a problem, he wanted to tackle it without considering the political consequences or balancing it against other priorities. As he reflected years later: "I have to say I could have put it off to a second term thats what Johnson had done; thats what Nixon had done; thats what Ford had done, and got away with it. But I didnt think it was right to continue with it." Even when Rosalynn advised him to wait until a second term, he replied, "Suppose there is no second term?" It was not that he was ignorant of the politics of decisions like Panama, but his overriding, guiding principle of presidential governance was to do things that needed to be done, in the certain belief that if he did the "right thing," he would ultimately be rewarded by the American people with another term. But as he later admitted, he underestimated the difficulty of applying this principle to the task in Panama. His insistence on immediately tackling the tough challenges, regardless of political costs and competing priorities, was at once his strength and weakness."

"In the life of the mass-order, the culture of the generality tends to conform to the demands of the average human being. Spirituality decays through being diffused among the masses when knowledge is impoverished in every possible way by rationalisation until it becomes accessible to the crude understanding of all."

"I say this to you because we Spaniards are a forgetful people, because we are used to living for the moment, because we do not look back, because we do not know how to see the chain of heroes, because we do not contemplate the sum of sacrifices."

"Sharon Tate was my best friend. Once, we were roommates. She introduced me to my husband. She was the godmother to my baby daughter who is named for her. In the six years time that I knew her, she never said an unkind word about anyone."

"Long time to see. (VS: Tapion)"

"Most mathematicians prove what they can, von Neumann proves what he wants." Once in a discussion about the rapid growth of mathematics in modern times, von Neumann was heard to remark that whereas thirty years ago a mathematician could grasp all of mathematics, that is impossible today. Someone asked him: "What percentage of all mathematics might a person aspire to understand today?" Von Neumann went into one of his five-second thinking trances, and said: "About 28 percent."

"Children must be free to think in all directions irrespective of the peculiar ideas of parents who often seal their childrens minds with preconceived prejudices and false concepts of past generations. Unless we are very careful, very careful indeed, and very conscientious, there is still great danger that our children may turn out to be the same kind of people we are."