“He had become, through a combination of heritage and character, a keeper of the national conscience.”
Source: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
“I would rather contend with an honest asshole than a duplicitous diplomat.”
“… the South is the land of Washington, who made our Nation – of Jefferson, who shaped its direction – and of Robert E. Lee who, after gallant failure, urged those who had followed him in bravery to reunite America in purpose and courage.” --President John F. Kennedy”
“Furthermore, a serious distortion of statesmanship occurs. Year by year, the statesman's time is increasingly devoted to an growing subset of misfits and neurotics, supposedly "oppressed" by an unfair social system which must be rectified. Little by little, the "oppressed" become the state's chief preoccupation, eclipsing the traditional tasks of statesmanship. The system no longer justifies itself in religious or historical terms, but on egalitarian grounds, in terms of "fairness" or "social justice." What actually happens, overall, is that greater and greater demands are placed upon the productive citizen to provide for the unproductive.”
“You were made in the image of God. Act accordingly!”
Source: Holy Moments: A handbook for the rest of your life
“Sama meant conciliation or alliances; Dana was giving gifts or compensation; Bheda was to reason with logic, and Danda meant physical altercation or war.”
Source: British Raj Thillana: The Finale
“Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.”
Source: Winter of the World
“Politics is an art and not a science, and what is required for its mastery is not the rationality of the engineer but the wisdom and the moral strength of the statesman.”
Source: Scientific Man Versus Power Politics
“Since the debt limit simply accommodates debt that has already been incurred, raising it should, in theory, be perfunctory. But politicians have found it a useful shibboleth for showing their fealty fiscal discipline, even as they vote to ratify the debts their previous actions have a beginning the country to pay. The symbol of railing against debt has proven politically beneficial, even if not substantively meaningful.”
Source: It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism
“The reality is that the American people have no desire for an empire. This is not to say that they don't want the benefits, both economic and strategic. It simply means that they don't want to pay the price. Economically, Americans want the growth potential of open markets but not the pains. Politically, they want to have an enormous influence, but not the resentment of the world. Military, they want to be protected from dangers but not to bear the burdens of long-term strategy.”
Source: The Next Decade: Where We've Been . . . and Where We're Going