Quotes

Exercise is more important than diet for me because it's a twofer. It keeps me in good physical shape, and it relieves stress. And when you're a representative of the public, there's never a shortage of things to do.

I got to know Elton John's older music by learning to like his newer stuff. 'The Lion King?' That's what I like.

My only personal time is a couple of hours in the gym in the morning.

Quite frankly, I think if a man or a woman likes their American job, wherever they were born, they should be able to keep that job. We need a clear path to citizenship for workers who are already here and a fair and efficient on-ramp for those who want to come here.

Obviously, exercise is an important part of my life, and I think taking care of yourself is an important part of every individual's health care.

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.

Each year I host a leadership summit in my district, and my biggest advice to young people is get experience. Get your foot in the door.

I'm not from a political family and didn't grow up dreaming of being George Washington. I started working in 8th grade and have held every odd job possible - working in a gravel pit, weighing big wheelers, ticket sales, data base management - but I knew if I worked hard and got experience, I could apply that experience to my next endeavor.

In politics, you never know who's going to die, retire, or - in Illinois - get indicted.

Everybody has a smartphone; everyone is a reporter.

Your belief system tends to be a function of how you were raised. Being raised in the Midwest and in a relatively conservative household, my views were shaped by my upbringing, by my Christian faith.

Good supporters who have single daughters say, 'Hey, you need to take my daughter out.' And it's awkward.

We should make it so that young people pay their fair share for health care, and nothing more. And instead of Washington telling us what to buy, let's get back to letting every American choose the plan that's best for them and their family.

Hard work and a good education will take you further than any government program.

I have always had great respect for former president Mandela. The personal sacrifices he made in order to achieve what was right for the people of South Africa is something I carry with me every day.

Thank you to the readers of the 'Huffington Post' for voting me the 'Hottest Freshman' of the 111th Congress. It's about time politicians from Illinois were known for something other than bad haircuts or having the ability to walk on water.

I don't believe that we should limit waterboarding - or, quite frankly, any other alternative torture technique - if it means saving Americans' lives.

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.

We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect... but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs.

In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say - it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration.

I may be wrong, but the essential illustrative nature of most documentary photography, and the worship of the object per se, in our best nature photography, is not enough to satisfy the man of today, compounded as he is of Christ, Freud, and Marx.

Almost inevitably there are tensions in the picture, tensions between the outside world and the inside world. For me, a successful picture resolves these tensions without eliminating them.

Decisions are made by those who show up.

Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.

I am all for everyone having a voice; I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.