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

You try to hold on to some notions you might have had before, that this will somehow work out, this is a spell that will lift or be broken.

[Barack Obama] says at one point, "[Jimmy] Carter, [Bill] Clinton and I suffer from," what he called, "the policy wonk's disease."

I think that there's a lot of anxiety out there in people wanting their children to be part of the mainstream, to achieve based on the well-worn yardsticks.

Who besides guys like me are part of the reality-based community?

For any thinking person, it (perpetual happiness) is untenable. If you're a thinking person, your upbeat sometimes, said sometimes.

Confidence is the public face of competence.