About forty percent of the people vote Democrat. About forty percent vote Republican. Of those eighty percent, most wouldn't change their votes if Adolf Hitler was running against Abe Lincoln - or against FDR. . . . That leaves twenty percent of the people who swing back one way or another . . . the true independents. . . . That twenty percent controls the destiny of the country.

(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.

Liberation and equal-rights issues notwithstanding, it was a man's job to make a woman feel cherished and respected.

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.

There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it's not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.

Civilians listened to officers, which said a lot about the intelligence of civilians.

Sunday was the normal day for the political awareness session at sea. Ordinarily Putin would have officiated, reading some Pravada editorials, followed by selected quotations from the works of Lenin and a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the readings. It is very much like a church service.