Intellect is not wisdom.

Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.

What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice.

Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.

When you start off by telling those who disagree with you that they are not merely in error but in sin, how much of a dialogue do you expect?

Our fate is matched by the total freedom we have to react to our fate. It is as if we were dealt a hand of card. Once we have them, we are free to play them as we choose.

Freedom is unlikely to be lost all at once and openly. It is far more likely to be eroded away, bit by bit, amid glittering promises and expressions of noble ideals.