"This is the choice we now face. This is what the election comes down to. Over and over, we’ve been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way -- that since government can’t do everything, it should do almost nothing. If you can’t afford health insurance, hope that you don’t get sick. If a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that’s the price of progress. If you can’t afford to start a business or go to college, take my opponent’s advice and borrow money from your parents. You know what, that’s not who we are. That’s not what this country’s about. As Americans, we believe we are endowed by our Creator with certain, inalienable rights -- rights that no man or government can take away. We insist on personal responsibility and we celebrate individual initiative. We’re not entitled to success -- we have to earn it. We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world’s ever known. But we also believe in something called citizenship." -- President Barack Obama
"Four years ago -- the only thing missing at this convention this year is my mom -- four years ago my mom was still with us, sitting up in the stadium in Denver. I quoted her, one of her favorite expressions. She used to say to all her children, she said, Joey, bravery resides in every heart and the time will come when it must be summoned. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you what I think you already know, but I watch it up close. Bravery resides in the heart of Barack Obama, and time and time again I witnessed him summon it. This man has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart, and a spine of steel." -- Vice President Joe Biden
"When people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago. He’s the same man who started his career by turning down high-paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work -- because for Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives." -- first lady Michelle Obama
"It isn’t fair to say Mitt Romney doesn’t have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position. Every president of both parties for 60 years has worked for nuclear arms control – but not Mitt Romney. Republican Secretaries of State--from Kissinger to Baker, Powell to Rice, President Bush, and 71 United States Senators--all supported President Obama’s New START Treaty. But not Mitt Romney. So here’s the choice in 2012: Mitt Romney – out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad, and out of the mainstream?" -- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.)
"A convention not just of symbolism, but of substance. This is the first time that a major party platform recognizes marriage equality as a basic human right. And this is the reflection of who we are as a party, and who we can be as a nation. Because as Democrats, as Americans, whenever we've opened up our party and our country, whenever we've opened up our doors for more of our people, whenever we deepen our democracy and renewed our commitment to equal justice under the law, we grow stronger as a nation." -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
"When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation. ...Why does cooperation work better than constant conflict? Because nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. And every one of us -- every one of us and every one of them, we're compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we're never going to be right all the time, and hopefully we're right more than twice a day. Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn't see it that way. They think government is always the enemy, they're always right, and compromise is weakness." -- former President Bill Clinton