Everyone seems to be running against a liar, but nobody seems to be one. Odd - I mean, the math doesn't work out.

The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep.

There's nothing so dangerous for manipulators as people who choose to think for themselves.

Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.

Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.

In government and out, there are vast realms of the bureaucracy dedicated to seeking more information, in perpetuity if need be, in order to avoid taking action.

If you were starting from scratch to invent an instrument that could impose fiscal discipline, the last one on earth you would come up with is the United States government.

Washington, under Democrats and Republicans, has a profoundly neurotic attitude toward 'the people.' It is built on equal parts of suspicion, loathing, fear, respect and dependence.

In Washington it is an honor to be disgraced. you have to have been somebody to fall.

Thin skin is the only kind of skin human beings come with.

Talking too much too soon and with too much self-satisfaction has always seemed to me a sure way to court disaster.

That which frees one from bondage is the right religion.

If someone tries to follow the narrow way and does not set aside who they think they are and what they think they need, they cannot follow.

The story of how I left Huckleberry begins -- as do all worthy stories -- with a goat

Aimer, ce n'est point nous regarder l'un l'autre, mais regarder ensemble dans la meme direction. English Translation: To love is not to look at each other, But to look together in the same direction.

Abolishing the book is like abolishing the symphony, or sonata form, or the sonnet, or the wall painting.

A script is like a theory of a movie.

Writer's make national literature, while translators make universal literature.

Robert Benchley has a style that is weak and lies down frequently to rest.

A bad poem is one that vanishes into meaning.

I ask you, if a mad man came in and abducted your child and I said to you I can bring your child homedoes it matter how I bring them home?