History knows no resting places and no plateaus

To have striven so hard, to have molded a public personality out of so amorphous an identity, to have sustained that superhuman effort only to end with every weakness disclosed and every error compounding the downfall--that was a fate of biblical proportions. Evidently the Deity would not tolerate the presumption that all can be manipulated; an object lesson of the limits of human presumption was necessary.

An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition.

I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency, it will be okay.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault.

A leader who confines his role to his people's experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people's experience runs the risk of not being understood.

The enemies you make by taking a decided stand generally have more respect for you than the friends you make by being on the fence