In Southern Europe, we have, of course, very bad governments.

As Brooks Adams put it, the sole problem of our ruling class is whether to coerce or to bribe the powerless majority.

Great critics do not explicate a text; they describe it and then report on what they have described, if the description itself is not the criticism.

You can improve your talent, but your talent is a given, a mysterious constant. You must make it the best of its kind.

Vitriolic is a needless and malign attack on something, excessive attack on something. It is a rather pointless thing to do.

Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be.

No reform ever came from the bottom, and it was always people who understood how the ruling class worked who turned out to be the reformers.