God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.

Despotism, which we regard with abhorrence, is rather too plausible in decaying feudal, agrarian, pastoral societies. That's why we must expect to have many a defeat before we'll have an ultimate victory in this contest with Communism.

What is funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously.

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

Self-righteousness is the inevitable fruit of simple moral judgments.

We ought to really at least recognize the common predicament of Communists and democrats - or Americans, whatever.