The absence of utopianism in the Constitution, law, and traditional political culture has been ... important in limiting expectations concerning what can be achieved by politics. The history of the last two centuries confirms what the framers of the Constitution understood: that the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the search for unalloyed virtue in public life leads to unalloyed terror.

A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.

Power ... is not an end in itself, but is an instrument that must be used toward an end.

It was not malaise we suffered from; it was Jimmy Carter - and Walter Mondale.

For all their faults, right-wing authoritarian regimes more easily accept democratic reforms than left-wing totalitarian states.

They (american press) always blame America first!

History is a better guide than good intentions.