Confidence is the immaterial residue of material actions. Confidence is the public face of competence.

These were lobbyists—many of them compensated quite handsomely not to react as human beings.

It is one thing to rouse the passion of a people, and quite another to lead them.

[Barack Obama] says that he thinks America felt better, more confident, because Washington was not simply in a gridlock, in stasis, where nothing was being done. And he talks about that as a positive.

Civilizations rise and fall on confidence. America had figured out a way to borrow money to manufacture it.

When you get people standing up saying, 'I'm going to just tell the truth; what do we have to fear?,' it encourages others, and it creates a counterresponse.

Wars tend to be very public things, they are visible. There are correspondents traveling with the troops and you get daily dispatches.