Preemption is a kind of pre-deterrence that stops the threat at an earlier, safer stage.

When under attack, no country is obligated to collect permission slips from allies to strike back.

A drone is a high-tech version of an old army and a musket. It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys, but not in America. I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home.

Chess: It's like alcohol. It's a drug. I have to control it, or it could overwhelm me. I have a regular Monday night game at my home, and I do play a little online.

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.

There's a reason why in New York Harbor we have the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Equality.

If fences don't work, why is there one around the White House.

In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.

Better to be paralyzed from the neck down than the neck up

Washington is the only place in the world where a gaffe is when a politician accidently speaks the truth.

Obsession with self is the motif of our time.

I'm not interested in who am I. I'm interested in what's gone, the disinheritance, what I've been able to become or learn or fuse with or not fuse with. A certain freedom comes... I like it that way.

Mom flipped through the magazines like the pages needed to be slapped.

Our immediate striving must be aimed at preventing what, in the present situation, is the greatest threat to the very survival of mankind, the nuclear threat.

I've had an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age and I've been interested in companies and products that are a little bit different.

Nothing is real but dreams and love.

A life isn't significant except for its impact on others' lives.

Unlike the talent for war, the ability to make peace has always been rare.

We're all who we are endlessly.

I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.

I'm not a morose person; it's just that my best songs reflect on the sadder aspects of life.