Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.

Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.

Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.

[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots

Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.

Grand visions, even those as prescient as Washington's, must nevertheless negotiate the damnable particularities that history in the short run tosses up before history in the long run arrives to validate the vision.

...the very notion that a candidate should openly solicit votes violated the principled presumption that such behavior itself represented a confession of unworthiness for national office.