Discontent does not invariably create a desire for change. Other factors have to be present before discontent turns into disaffection. read more

Discontent does not invariably create a desire for change. Other factors have to be present before discontent turns into disaffection. One of these is a sense of power.

Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical read more

Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - Inaugural Address.

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend read more

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is read more

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and read more

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.

Who overcomesBy force, hath overcome but half his foe.

Who overcomesBy force, hath overcome but half his foe.

The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and read more

The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and that's what it would take.