We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man may have committed or how cynically he may have debased his talent or his friends, variations on the answer Yes, but I did it for the money, satisfy all but the most tiresome objections.

The more prosperous and settled a nation, the more readily it tends to think of war as a regrettable accident; to nations less fortunate the chance of war presents itself as a possible bountiful friend.

History is not what happened 200 or 2,000 years ago; it's a story about what happened 200 or 2,000 years ago.

If you wear a suit, you can talk to anybody.

Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence.

Of what does politics consist except the making of imperfect decisions, many of them unjust and quite a few of them deadly?

Democracy is born in dirt, nourished by the digging up and turning over as much of it as can be brought within reach of a television camera or subpoena.