Perfect discipline requires recognition of infallibility. Infallibility requires the observance of discipline.

It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.

Heroism is endurance for one moment more.

World communism is like [a] malignant parasite which feeds on diseased tissue

The nuclear bomb is the most useless weapon ever invented. It can be employed to no rational purpose. It is not even an effective defense against itself.

Instruments of coercion, once created, have a tendency to find their own natural masters.

There is more respect to be won in the opinion of this world by a resolute and courageous liquidation of unsound positions than by the most stubborn pursuit of extravagant or unpromising objectives.

The United States should not jump around like an elephant frightened by a mouse.

A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live.

War is a highly overrated tool of foreign policy.

The Russian leaders are keen judges of human psychology, and as such they are highly conscious that loss of temper and of self-control is never a source of strength in political affairs.

True leadership is not defined by notoriety, power, prestige, status, or job title.

Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength his glory and his pleasure.

My testimony has been my anchor and my stay, my satisfaction in times of joy and gladness, my comfort in times of sorrow and discouragement.

I worry that by losing my temper so much and being so harsh and yelling so much that, by example, I will have taught my daughters to be that way, and I'm now constantly telling them not to do that.

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.

Fine, dandy, she thought. Then lose the shirt, peel off those leather pants, and lie down on my tile. We'll take turns being on the bottom.

When people tap into this politics of resentment, it usually ends ugly.

I'm a performer. We don't retire.

I'm enormously less interested in whom you sleep with than I am in with whom you're prepared to die.