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

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.

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

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.

And stop talking in that puffed-up way they taught you. Words aren't brains, you know.

The goal had been important only for the sake of finding the path to it.

In her mind she was free

I told you to bring me to Alec! Backstabbing Judas.

I never build myself us. I let the people do that. I'm the most laid-back person, and I let them build me up. If you ask me, I say, 'I''m just a guy playin' some blues.

Love based upon indulgence of animal passion, is at best a selfish affair, and likely to snap under the slightest strain.

Government should exist in order to help fortify the country and make those who are in need better able to meet their own.

Call me Diana, not Princess Diana.

Freedom requires us to view people as wanting the opportunity to earn their success.

Silence - not dissent - is the one answer that leaders should refuse to accept.