“Our task as citizens whether we are leaders in government or business – or spreading the word – is to spend our days with open hearts and open minds. To seek out the truth that exists in an opposing view and to find the common ground that allows for us as a nation, as a people, to take real and meaningful action. And we have to do that humbly – for no one can know the full and encompassing mind of God. And we have to do it everyday, not just at a prayer breakfast.” — President Barack Obama, at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast

“My goal is to get people to have discussions about things about which they disagree in a civil way, not call each other names and get in all kinds of infantile discussions. We don’t need to do that. We have so many pressing problems in our country and at some point we’re going to have to tone down the rhetoric and move toward solutions for the multitudinous problems or we’re going to go right down the tubes, just like every other pinnacle nation that has preceded us…”

–Dr. Ben Carson

(Photo credit: Mary Harrsch)