One lesson of Sept. 11 is that a government that tries to do everything is likely to do most of it badly.

Big Government is erecting a panopticon state - one that sees everything, and regulates everything. It’s great “customer service,” except that you can never get out of the store.

Big Government is the small option: it's the guarantee of smaller freedom, smaller homes, smaller cars, smaller opportunities, smaller lives.

But, once you get a taste for shutting people up, it's hard to stop. Why bother winning the debate when it's easier to close it down?

The spirit of the age is: Ask not what your country can do for you, demand it.

Question: How much do you have to invest in the future before you've spent it and no longer have one?

LBJ held up Detroit as a model of what the Great Society could accomplish. He was right.

There may be many things wrong with the United States but only a blind fool who hasn't been paying attention for the last twenty years would hold up Europe as the alternative.

Those who can do. Those who can't form a supercommittee.

The Democratic Party is uniquely virulently racist and pro-slavery to a degree unseen anywhere in the English-speaking world!

The long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.

We can take full comfort in realizing the continuing strength of our nation. America's lands remain radiantly rich with diversity, and freedom still reigns.

Shame produces trauma. Trauma produces paralysis.

I didn't really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.

Chaos is the only thing that honestly wants you to grow. The only friend who really helps you be creative.

God, middle age is an unending insult.

I looked around, counting the competition. Sixteen. To win, all I had to do was incapacitate each one, place my hand over their hearts and turn my palm into a flame. Easy. Yeah right.

Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, the Watery, the Unshored.

Why don't we try falling in love first and then I'll see what happens after that?

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

I think if you're open-minded, the road will take you where it takes you. If you're closed, you might not get to go where the road is heading.