I'm a political scientist and I study these things, and I know that economic problems, with the rising unemployment and inflation and low productivity and so forth, were a factor in that election, in that defeat of President Carter.

All of us confront limits of body, talent, temperament. But that is not all. We are, all of us, also constrained by our time, our place, our civilization.

I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.

Straying off course is not recognized as a capital crime by civilized nations.

Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves in some sense as members of a cosmos ruled by God.

Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse-and things won't get worse unless they get elected.

History is a better guide than good intentions.