All politicians are to some extent salesmen.

The strongest continuous thread in America's political tradition is skepticism about government.

The best use of history is as an inoculation against radical expectations, and hence against embittering disappointments.

Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, 'What you are doing is none of my business' and 'What I am doing is none of your business.'

Perhaps the soundest advice for parents is: Lighten up. People have been raising children for approximately as long as there have been people.

Sarah Palin, who with 17 months remaining in her single term as Alaska's governor quit the only serious office she has ever held, is obsessively discussed as a possible candidate in 2012. Why? She is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states.

Hyperbole expands in societies where articulateness atrophies.