Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems read more

Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach. A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. De Tocqueville in his researches into the state of society in France before the revolution was struck by the discovery that "in no one of the periods which have followed the Revolution of 1789 has the national prosperity of France augmented more rapidly than it did in the twenty years preceding that event." He is forced to conclude that "the French found their position the more intolerable the better it became.

I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.

I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing read more

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing wrong.

If we truly cared about our children and future generations, instead of demagoging about them, we'd worry more about saving read more

If we truly cared about our children and future generations, instead of demagoging about them, we'd worry more about saving liberty than saving Social Security.

One can become a leader only if one is supported by an ideology which makes other people tractable and accommodating.

One can become a leader only if one is supported by an ideology which makes other people tractable and accommodating.

By the end, everybody had a label -- pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary ... If you had everything but a gun, read more

By the end, everybody had a label -- pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary ... If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

Watergate showed more strengths in our system than weaknesses... The whole country did take part in quite a genuine sense read more

Watergate showed more strengths in our system than weaknesses... The whole country did take part in quite a genuine sense in passing judgment on Richard Nixon.