Before you can begin to think about politics at all, you have to abandon the notion that there is a war between good men and bad men.

Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned....That is why a society can be progressive only if it conserves its traditions.

No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.

The whole speculation about morality is an effort to find a way of living which men who live it will instinctively feel is good.

Whereas each man claims his freedom as a matter of right, the freedom he accords to other men is a matter of toleration.

Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.

You don't have to preach honesty to men with a creative purpose. A genuine craftsman will not adulterate this product. The reason isn't because duty says he shouldn't, but because passion says he couldn't.