Fight Hard Enough

If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them.

--Paul Wellstone

Every Age

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.

--Samuel Johnson

Imperfect Creatures

As a politician myself I am deeply mindful that we are imperfect creatures and don't always act with justice uppermost on our minds.

--Barack Obama

Round Peg, Square Hole

Almost every wrong prediction about this election cycle has come from those trying to force the round peg of this year's campaign into the square holes of past political wars.

--Frank Rich

What's the Use

What's the use of being a politician if you can't make a living at being a hypocrite?

--Norman Mailer

Not Very Unreasonable

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

--Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations)

Slower to Trust

Voters are slower to trust you with big things if they see a lack of skill in small things.

--Peggy Noonan

Owes a Return

Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.

--John Stuart Mill

Everyone Is Watching

My attitude is, the more I'm in public, I don't even want to pick my nose. I'm assuming everyone is watching.

--Barack Obama (interview with Katie Couric, October 16, 2008)

No Meaning

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

--C. S. Lewis

Existing Model

In order to change something, don't struggle to change the existing model. Create a new model and make the old one obsolete.

--Buckminster Fuller

That's What Happens

I don't take any of it personally, and I don't take most of it seriously. That's what happens in politics.

--Hillary Clinton

Hope

Hope is a tattered flag and a dream of time.

--Carl Sandburg

Lies

What's the major cause of the nation's financial crisis? Lies; a river of lies emptied into a sea of mendacity, sucked up into the sky again by a great hurricane of deceit, and rained back down upon us in a deluge of prevarication.

--Glenn W. Smith

In Its Essence

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power.

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

Scare You

Some things will scare you so bad that you hurt yourself.

--Molly Ivins

Rules

Rules cannot take the place of character.

--Alan Greenspan

Money Destroys

If the whole country is going to pot, and it certainly is, I think you could graph the decline not only in morals, but in a sense of social éclat and social standards--I think you could plot the decline right next to the rise of the Dow Jones--the higher the Dow, the lower the standards. Money destroys all other values.

--Norman Mailer (March 1999)

Secular Miracle

That a piece of paper of no intrinsic value should pass for good money the world over is nothing less than a secular miracle.

--James Grant

Men Who Bite Dogs

The press likes the unusual. The man bite dog story. The maverick senators who do weird stuff. But just because men who bite dogs make for good copy doesn't make biting a dog a good idea.

--Matthew Yglesias

Toothache

When we have a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is happiness. But later, when we don't have a toothache, we don't treasure our non-toothache.

--Thich Nhat Hanh