Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.

A villain must be a thing of power, handled with delicacy and grace. He must be wicked enough to excite our aversion, strong enough to arouse our fear, human enough to awaken some transient gleam of sympathy. We must triumph in his downfall, yet not barbarously nor with contempt, and the close of his career must be in harmony with all its previous development.

There is no liberal education for the under-languaged.

Bargaining is essential to the life of the world; but nobody has ever claimed that it is an ennobling process.

The clear-sighted do not rule the world, but they sustain and console it.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.

Believers in political faith-healing enjoy a supreme immunity from doubt.