A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.

Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.

Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

I agree with the [Supreme Court's] holding that racial discrimination in higher education admissions will be illegal in 25 years. They are illegal now.

I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.

I'll tell you one of the most depressing things for me. It's when people say they have nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon. You go to the library and see how many people are there -- then go to the mall and look at the contrast. What you do with your Saturdays now will dictate what you do with your Saturdays twenty years from now.

So-called "benign" discrimination teaches many that because of chronic and apparently immutable handicaps, minorities cannot compete without their patronizing indulgence.