The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like read more

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.

We once worried that democracy could not survive if an undereducated populace knew too little. Now we worry if it read more

We once worried that democracy could not survive if an undereducated populace knew too little. Now we worry if it can survive us knowing too much.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

The plans differ; the planners are all alike...

The plans differ; the planners are all alike...

All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks read more

All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks but seldom changes the way the world works. Lasting historical change comes not through tidal waves but through the irresistible creeping tide.

The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.

The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their read more

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way.