Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica of the Roman or Venetian republics. They didn't even like the etymology of the word "democracy."

In fact, life itself is a contradiction if only because birth is the direct cause, in every single case, of death

Don't ever make the mistake with people like me thinking we are looking for heroes. There aren't any and if there were, they would be killed immediately. I'm never surprised by bad behaviour. I expect it.

What other culture could have produced someone like Hemmingway and not seen the joke?

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.