In whichever way a democratic system might be sick, terrorism does not heal it; it kills it. Democracy is healed with democracy. - Christopher Hitchens

An official of the Teamsters' Union, asked by a Senate hearing if his union was really powerful, responded guardedly but elegantly by saying that being powerful was a little like being ladylike: "If you have to say you are, you prob'ly ain't."

Forget it. Never explain; never apologize. You can either write posthumously or you can't.

Periclean Greeks employed the term idiotis, without any connotation of stupidity or subnormality, to mean simply 'a person indifferent to public affairs.' Obviously, there is something wanting in the apolitical personality. But we have also come to suspect the idiocy of politicization — of the professional pol and power broker. The two idiocies make a perfect match, with the apathy of the first permitting the depredations of the second.