It’s true that I’ve driven through a number of red lights. But on the other hand, I’ve stopped at a lot of green ones I’ve never gotten credit for.
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until . . . we stop saying, “It got lost,” and start saying, “I lost it.”
True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.
The Schofield Kid (a young gunfighter feeling guilt after his first killing): It don’t seem real. . . . Now he’s dead and the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger.
Will Munny: It’s a helluva thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.
Kid: Well, I guess they had it coming.
Munny: We all have it coming, kid.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible.
[It is] not fair to say that I have misinformed Congress or other cabinet officers. I haven’t testified to that. I’ve testified that I withheld information from Congress. And with regard to the cabinet officers, I didn’t withhold anything from them that they didn’t want withheld from them.
The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.
I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.
The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.
To the loved ones of the victims of 9/11, to them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television: Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn’t matter, because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.
A general rule of etiquette is that one apologizes for the unfortunate occurrence, but the unthinkable is unmentionable.
I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don’t care what the facts are.
Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.
There is always time to make right / what is wrong.
What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human?
No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.
To always be intending to live a new life, but never find time to set about it — this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking from one day to another till he be starved and destroyed.
How did I get so lucky to have my heart awakened to others and their suffering?
I have died so little today, friend, forgive me.
