Every step by which men add to their knowledge and skills is a step also by which they can control other men.

Meiklejohn's position is that free speech in a democracy is not an absolute flowing from the boundless source of some presumed 'natural right.' It is a practical necessity of 'self-government by universal suffrage,' for if the citizens are not permitted to argue out the issues of government, how can they be what they must be in a democracy - the rulers as well as the ruled?

The politics of surprise leads through the Gates of Astonishment into the Kingdom of Hope.

A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride.

The so-called lessons of history are for the most part the rationalizations of the victors. History is written by the survivors.

Some of the more fatuous flag-waving Americans are in danger of forgetting that you can't extract gratitude as you would extract a tooth; that unless friendship is freely given, it means nothing and less than nothing.

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.