Tyranny is abhorrent, freedom benefits all, whereas violence benefits no one for long.

Our desires are never wholly transparent, even to ourselves.

Friendship requires a leap, not of faith but of regard.

We don't know what the future will bring, but that's because we are ever in the process of creating it, not because it is an alien force to which we have to submit.

Neiman's book is written with considerable flair, as many critics have already noted, but it possesses a far rarer and more valuable quality: moral seriousness. Her argument builds a powerful emotional force, a sense of deep inevitability. . . . It is not often that a work of such dark conclusions has felt so hopeful and brave.

Paradoxically, the problems of politics often arise not in the form of a problem of scarcity, but as one of abundance.

Politics is rather the creation of the best possible polity out of the deep inner needs of its citizenry - who are only some of its members.