Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.

Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.

Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.

A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.

The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.

Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'

Never assume the obvious is true.