With the parties at virtual parity and the ideological gulf between them never greater, the stakes of majority control of Congress are extremely high.

Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictions word, preserves contact - it is silence which isolates.

In addition to the decline in competition, American politics today is characterized by a growing ideological polarization between the two major political parties.

Presidents are elected not by direct popular vote but by 538 members of the Electoral College.

Some of necessities go astray, because for them there is no such thing as a right path.

Knowledge of the soul would unfailingly make us melancholy if the pleasures of expression did not keep us alert and of good cheer.

Whose best and most fruitful gift was the power of admiration, which made it possible for me to learn. Now, as in my youth, I am looking up to the truly great creations of the past, which I see high above my own and which alone deserve the name of greatness.