Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.

Americans complain a lot about the government and they voice a generalized suspicion of the government, but they constantly clammer for more of it.

Well, you know, the definition of second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

I say statecraft is soulcraft. Just as all education is moral education because learning conditions conduct, most legislation is moral legislations because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres in life.

As Aristotle said, happiness is not a condition that is produced or stands on its own; rather, it is a frame of mind that accompanies an activity. But another frame of mind comes first. It is a steely determination to do well.

We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe; it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge

As has been said, standards are always out of date - that is why we call them standards.