The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness.

Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.

Robert James Waller

It is function of government to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience.

Murray Kempton

If Obamacare is allowed to stand - and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory - there will be no meaningful limit on Washington's reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended.

John Cornyn

In our culture we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God.

Ravi Shankar

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test.

Christopher Hitchens

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

Dean Acheson, from a speech in I

With failure, you just try again.

Judd Nelson

Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!

Lord Byron

Preachers in pulpits talked about what a great message is in the book. No matter what you do, somebody always imputes meaning into your books.

Dr. Seuss

The hall-mark of American humor is its pose of illiteracy.

Ronald Knox

Just as humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy.

Valerie Solanis

Once a man is on hand, a woman tends to stop believing in her own beliefs.

Colette Dowling