At 14 you are still in most respects a dependent youth, in some respects a child. At 24 you are an adult. In between, extraordinary turbulences take place.

You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.

To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.

Marriage orients men and women toward the future, asking them not just to commit to each other but to plan, to earn, to save, and to devote themselves to advancing their children's prospects.

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.

I'm a Democrat, and there are an important group of things only the government can do. But let us be clear that for most of the world, what they most need is less government.

If the newspapers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people.

I can live with the robber barons, but how do you live with these pathological radicals?

The principal objective of American government at every level should be to see that children are born into intact families and that they remain so.

chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd.

The greatest need in the world at this moment is the transformation of human nature.

I honestly can't characterize my style in words. It seems that whatever comes to me naturally, I play

We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.

The odd thing about Cripple of Inishmaan is its never actually been performed on the island.

Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn't that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental.

When we're trying to solve difficult national issues its sometimes necessary to talk to adversaries as well as friends. Historians have a word for this: diplomacy.

Last Halloween a kid tried to rip my face off. He thought it was a mask. Now it's different when I open the door the kids hand me candy.

Physical courage in whatever scene ... seems to hinge on whether the individual can feel he is fighting for others as well as himself.

Things always work out for me because I do whatever I want without worrying about the consequences.