There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day.

To serve in the modern military - or to be the uncle, parent or sibling of one who does - is to treat the necessary service and sacrifice of war with a sacred honor. In my community, we pile into cars and drive hundreds of miles to watch our children's graduation from basic training.

Airing the family's laundry can make people upset.

I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me... Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.

The idea that working a blue-collar job and living in a working-class community provides barriers that are unique to your circumstances - that's not a very controversial subject anymore. I think it's something that people on both the Left and the Right probably accept.

We spend our way to the poorhouse. We buy giant TVs and iPads. Our children wear nice clothes thanks to high-interest credit cards and payday loans. We purchase homes we don't need, refinance them for more spending money, and declare bankruptcy, often leaving them full of garbage in our wake. Thrift is inimical to our being.

Every two weeks, I'd get a small pay-check and notice the line where federal and state income taxes were deducted from my wages. At least as often, our drug-addict neighbor would buy T-bone steaks, which I was too poor to buy for myself but was forced by Uncle Sam to buy for someone else.

Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.

My military service is the thing I'm most proud of, but when I think of everything happening in the Middle East, I can't help but tell myself I wish we would have achieved some sort of lasting victory. No one touched that subject before Trump, especially not in the Republican Party.

We spend to pretend that we're upper class. And when the dust clears - when bankruptcy hits or a family member bails us out of our stupidity - there's nothing left over. Nothing for the kids' college tuition, no investment to grow our wealth, no rainy-day fund if someone loses her job.

Stanford's law school application wasn't the standard combination of college transcript, LSAT score, and essays. It required a personal sign-off from the dean of your college: You had to submit a form, completed by the dean, attesting that you weren't a loser.

Know your worth! People always act like they're doing more for you than you're doing for them.

We have to rediscover the eternal values and then live them out.

If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.

An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results.

The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away.

We attract what is happening in our lives

We're overpaying him, but he's worth it.

A verbal contract is worth about as much as the paper it's written on.

I've always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybody comes.

Nothing gained without cost is valued. Freedom has a cost, and all will bear it so all will value and preserve it.

If we continue to devalue ourselves we cannot realistically expect respect from others.

Real value isn’t in what you own, drive, wear or live. The greater value is found in love and life, health and strength, friends and family!

The value of a man is in his intrinsic qualities: in that of which power cannot strip him and which adverse fortune cannot take away. That for which he is indebted to circumstances is mere trapping and tinsel.