If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not read more

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility read more

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in read more

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it's Mr. Vice President, because that is who he is.

The greatest Glory of a free-born People, Is to transmit that Freedom to their Children.

The greatest Glory of a free-born People, Is to transmit that Freedom to their Children.

We just did a survey that showed.... something like 65 percent of the [American] people couldn't vote for the First read more

We just did a survey that showed.... something like 65 percent of the [American] people couldn't vote for the First Amendment if it was up for a vote today.

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.

To those who feel that their values are the values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," read more

To those who feel that their values are the values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," simply because such systems respond to a diversity of values. The more successfully such systems respond to diversity, the more "chaos" there will be, by definition, according to the standards of any specific set of values- other than diversity or freedom as values. Looked at another way, the more self-righteous observers there are, the more chaos (and "waste") will be seen.

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for read more

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for president, that it was so Pop, and (laughs) when you think about it like that, it is great, it's so American.