Democracy is a political method, that is to say, a certain type of institutional arrangement for arriving at political -- legislative and administrative -- decisions and hence incapable of being an end in itself.

People will ignore their misfortunes and their interests when they are in competition with their pleasures.

Proverb

War is never a lasting solution for any problem.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

And in terms of their crown jewel legislative achievement: who knew that when asked, 'will government impose a new federal mandate requiring middle class Americans to buy health insurance whether they can afford it or not?' The answer would be 'Yes we can!'

Artur Davis

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Samuel Johnson

If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.

W. H. Auden

You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.

Hal Borland

It's time to stop the raid on the Social Security trust fund and start allowing Americans to invest their Social Security taxes in personal savings accounts.

Mike Pence

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.

Henry Miller

I've never fallen in love right off the bat. I get scared to say I love you too soon because it means so much. It means you're not seeing an end to things.

Leighton Meester

Publicity is the life of this culture -- in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive -- and at the same time publicity is its dream.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, ch.

I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I've found them to be real smart and good workers.

Loretta Lynn

If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.

Marilyn Monroe