The play of conflicting interests in a framework of shared purposes is the drama of a free society. It is a robust exercise, and often a noisy one. It is not for the faint-hearted, or the tidy-minded.

To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning.

Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.

Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.

The cynic says, "One man can't do anything". I say, "Only one man can do anything."

History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always feels uncomfortable.

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.