Once the public loses confidence in a president's leadership at a time of war, once they don't trust him anymore, once his credibility is sharply diminished, how does he get it back?

The consequence of the Bay of Pigs failure wasn't an acceptance of Castro and his control of Cuba but, rather, a renewed determination to bring him down by stealth.

In counterfactual history, nothing is certain.

... what's in a person's heart and soul will not likely be changed by the ability to command a helicopter to land on the South Lawn.

Like Lyndon Johnson, President Obama understands that timidity in a time of troubles is a prescription for failure.

What makes war interesting for Americans is that we don't fight war on our soil, we don't have direct experience of it, so there's an openness about the meanings we give it.

Presidents by six years have been there long enough for the media and the country to see their flaws.

It is very difficult for [people] to accept the idea that someone as inconsequential as Oswald could have killed someone as consequential as Kennedy.

The art of diplomacy is finding a reasonable route among imperfect alternatives.

JFK to RFK: To survive in politics, you sometimes have to be willing to make fun of yourself.

Vietnam was a palpable failure. And of course, in retrospect, it was even more clearly a disaster and a failure than maybe people understood at the time.

Imagination can take you to any place of interest.

I waited for the seasons of love to pass from this cold winter to the summer heat I dreamed of.

Half of my life passed searching for the evil that makes me to do wrong things, until I found innocent evils trapped in me.

He in his madness prays for storms, and dreams that storms will bring him peace

Some donkeys have amazing luck.

The human brain can soften as a result of incessant listening to music with an intent to commit prose.

We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.

I thank God I am endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my keyboard piano, oh Lord, why don't we?