“No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.”

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom

Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.

It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.

A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…

Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.

The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.

We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.

To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.

And the correspondence between them that we have, I mean, she says, “I cannot believe you’re not going to say one word.” And she writes to Walter White, “I’ve asked FDR to say one word. Perhaps he will.” But he doesn’t. And these become very bitter disagreements.

His name never occurs in a single inscription, and it is never found in a single piece of private correspondence. Zero! Zip references!

1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it hasturned out to be an Annus Horribilis.

I love staying in written correspondence with some writers. That’s enough for me.

I value my correspondence with writers…

When I came back to Washington to be The Times’ chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.