Remarks by President George W. Bush at "The Visit of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to the Bush Center"

Please be seated.

I want to thank Jim Glassman for his leadership of the Bush Institute. I don’t think anybody could have possibly predicted that, in a short period of time, we would achieve so much. A lot of that has to do with Mark Langdale’s pushing and Jim Glassman’s leading, and so I want to thank for the introduction..

Thank you for the introduction. I’m thrilled to be here with President Gerald Turner of SMU, and Gail. Many of you have heard me say this before, but we are delighted and honored to be associated with Southern Methodist University. It really is a fine place, and we intend to work cooperatively to enhance its excellence.

I want to thank Senator Bill Frist. What a surprise. He and I have something in common: we were both honored to serve at the same time, and we’re both retired.

I’ve been looking forward to this moment, Your Holiness, because I wanted to introduce you to friends of mine and Laura's. And I want our friends to be able to meet you.

I had a lot of extraordinary experiences when I was President, as you can imagine—a lot of interesting moments—but some of the most extraordinary had to do with His Holiness. When you spend time with him, you realize that there’s something unusual about the man.

So they said, “What’s he like? What’s the Dalai Lama like?” Here’s my best description: he’s courageous and humble. He is a delight to be around. When I think of the Dalai Lama, I smile. He brings peace to your heart, and yet he is courageous in the defense of liberty.

Laura and I had the opportunity to give him some tea today at our house, and he said, “You’re too quiet.” I said, “Look, I don’t want to butt in anymore. You know, I’m kind of out of politics.” And he said, “You need to speak up for freedom more.”

Because the Dalai Lama, His Holiness, understands, as well as anybody, that freedom yields peace. And he is a man of peace.

You’ve done us a huge favor for being here, Your Holiness. This is an extraordinary gift — to have you here on the SMU campus, and to be having lunch with our friends. This is a priceless contribution to the Bush Center.

I can assure you that when you tell your buddies around the country, “I had lunch with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” they’re going to say, “No you didn’t. That’s typical Texas braggadocio." But you did. And I consider this one of the great gestures of friendship.

So would you please welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

[Applause]