The essence of a government health care system - for people who have never lived under it and don't know - is waiting waiting waiting. You wait for everything. You wait for years for operations that are routine in America.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

The essence of America - that which really unites us - is not ethnicity or nationality or religion - it is an idea - and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.

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.

The essence of Government is power and power lodged as it must be in human hands will ever be liable to abuse.

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

The essence of good government is trust.

The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past but a prudent and probing concern for the future.

The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present but it is a source of inspiration of vitality and hope where others have resigned it enables a man to hold his head high to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.

I would be willing to do almost anything to make Art happy. I care about our friendship. The only thing I won't do is change the essence of my work.