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What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.

When you're a politician, someone always wants something from you, so they're constantly telling you how smart or great you are, and that can warp people! Exercising humility is important to me. My friends back home treat me like the same person I was when I was waiting tables.

It feels good to know you contributed positively to another's life, to their happiness, to their survival. It gives us a sense of purpose.

The power of being in the physical presence of another person delivers real benefits.

When someone you have a lot of respect for believes in you, it helps you believe in yourself.

When we describe what the other person is really like, I suppose we often picture what we want. We look through the prism of our need.

Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it's being done to him or by him.

The career of politics grants a feeling of power. The knowledge of influencing men, of participating in power over them, and above all, the feeling of holding in one's hands a nerve fiber of historically important events can elevate the professional politician above everyday routine even when he is placed in formally modest positions.

I am who I am. In politics when you treat people well and they know you're honest, straight and sincere, I think it's an advantage. Just because somebody comes from a hard-boiled political culture doesn't make him a good U.S. senator.