The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.

Words are seductive and dangerous material, to be used with caution.

The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith.

Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence.

The better part of valor is to spend it learning to live with differences, however hostile, unless and until we can find another planet.

Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.

Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.