The curious fascination in this job [U.S. representative] is the illusion that either you are being useful or you could be -- and that's so tempting.

One of the keys to our present definition of good taste is that it is better to be kind than to be 'correct.' There is no situation in which it is smart to be nasty.

In our times, significantly, the three outstanding voices against violence have been silenced by murder - Mahatma Gandhi in India, Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, and Dr. Martin Luther King, here at home.

Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.

Any change in customs ... takes generations to accomplish, and must come about by general consent. Even a superficial study of sociology shows the futility of past efforts to make a lasting change in manners by an act of will or authority.

Economics is not a science, in the sense that a policy can be repeatedly applied under similar conditions and will repeatedly produce similar results.

Party organization matters. When the door of a smoke-filled room is closed, there's hardly ever a woman inside.