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Any ideal system is its own worst enemy, and as soon as you start to implement these visions of grandeur, they just fall apart and turn into a complete tyranny.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

It is impossible to anticipate all of the misdeeds engendered by the universal conflict of human passions. They multiply at a compound rate with the growth in population and the interlacing of particular interests that cannot be directed with geometrical precision towards the public utility.

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.

You can distill deterrence down to two factors: capability and will.

I strongly believe in political activity that has to do with choices - and not consensus that sometimes covers problems and doesn't resolve them.

I think people are tired of just, this kind of continuous conflict. They want to see principled problem-solving.

A great deal of what is presumed to be intractable or inevitable in this world doesn't strike me that way at all.

In government, the forces of risk-aversion and constant conflict serve to stultify and narrow the range of ideas up for debate.

The most enduring battle is between head and heart; what would be efficient and logical is nearly always trumped by what is messy and illogical.