Policy was not reconsidered because the governing group had no habit of purposeful consultation.

Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all passions.

Government was rarely more than a choice between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

The process of gaining power employs means which degrade or brutalize the seeker, who awakes to find that power has been possessed at the cost of virtue or moral purpose lost.

House speaker Thomas read could see the trend, but he could not have changed himself.

Confronted by menace or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it, and drefine it.

The utility of perseverance in absurdity is more than I could ever discern. Edmund Burke

He was always acting, always enveloping himself in artificiality, perhaps to conceal the volcano within.

How much does a man's effort depend upon the age in which his work is cast? Pope Clement VII

No single characteristic ever overtakes an entire society.

Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come.

The belief in their actions can mend constellations. The ambition in their thirst for knowledge can both create and destroy.

The secret prayer chamber is a bloody battleground. Here violent and decisive battles are fought out. Here the fate of souls for time and eternity is determined, in quietude and solitude.

Words are the source of misunderstandings.

But sometimes you have to wait for an answer to come to you. Especially when the questions are difficult ones.

Are you full of the Holy Spirit? Then you will be full of mercy, kindness and love.

If you're not making waves, you're not under weigh.

This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while.

I read a lot. I liked a tremendous number of poets and writers. The person whose work I liked the most was Joyce.

I've fallen in love maybe five times in my life. But it's a long life. I do get crushes. Whether it's men or women or babies.

Actually there's a very bad trend in some cults about how Guru's are supposed to be mean to their students, and there are some who revel in this and are abusive.