Among the social sciences, economists are the snobs. Economics, with its numbers and graphs and curves, at least has the coloration and paraphernalia of a hard science. It's not just putting on sandals and trekking out to take notes on some tribe.

He's nice enough not to want to be associated with a nasty remark but not nice enough not to make it. Lacking the courage of one's nastiness does not make one nice.

Americans don't want leadership. They want alchemy.

If sexual intercourse, as the poets tell us, began in 1963, it was another decade and a half before the American political system began to take notice.

The takings clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals.

Conservatives and liberals alike have been waiting for this moment for a third of a century.

I have a saying: the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal.