Stubborn opposition to proposals often has no other basis than the complaining question, 'Why wasn't I consulted?'

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

The issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect.

The work of democratic government is routinely concerned with matters defined as troubles. In "The Presidency and the Press" I make the point, familiar to anyone who has flown about the world much, that the best quick test of the political nature of a regime is to read the local papers on arrival. If they are filled with bad news, you have landed in a libertarian society of some sort. If, on the other hand, the press is filled with good news, it is a fair bet that the jails will be filled with good men.

Citizen participation is a device whereby public officials induce nonpublic individuals to act in a way the officials desire.