Look all this is about is utilizing the rules of the Senate using a majority of the senators to make sure that we get health reform done. We cannot wait another day.

The biggest public health challenge is rebuilding health systems. In other words if you look at cholera or maternal mortality or tuberculosis in Haiti they're major problems in Haiti but the biggest problem is rebuilding systems.

We've taken on the major health problems of the poorest - tuberculosis maternal mortality AIDS malaria - in four countries. We've scored some victories in the sense that we've cured or treated thousands and changed the discourse about what is possible.

Got good news and bad news for you Mr. President. The good news is that Chief Justice John Roberts just saved your legacy and perhaps your presidency by writing for the Supreme Court majority to rule health care reform constitutional.

I think government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness.

Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran no matter how benign their intentions present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west.

I don't understand why Europeans and South Americans can take more sophistication. Why is it that Americans need to hear their happiness major and their tragedy minor and as jazzy as they can handle is a seventh chord? Are they not experiencing complex emotions?

The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This and not much else is the essence of leadership.

In Republics the great danger is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.