The very phrase ‚foreign affairs‘ makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.

‚Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

It’s not simply to say, ‚My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way,‘ but the greatest dissents do become court opinions.

Dissents speak to a future age.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

For 18 years I have resisted talking about current events. I am not going to start now.

History is more or less bunk.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

I can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

People are always asking me in interviews, ‚What do you think of foreign affairs?‘ I just say, ‚I’ve had a few.‘

Romcoms are hard in a lot of ways: they’re built to be buoyant. It’s easy to demean them.

Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

For the people who ostensibly wish me well or are worried about my immortal soul, I say I take it kindly.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

History should be written as philosophy.

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

I sleep people. I put people unconscious. I’m stating facts.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

If you look at ‚Blade Runner,‘ it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday, and there are all kinds of different versions of it.

I’m not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose… it’ll be much harder to detect.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?

Corruption is one of the most common reasons I hear in views that criticize aid.

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

Ever since Newton, we’ve done science by taking things apart to see how they work. What the computer enables us to do is to put things together to see how they work: we’re now synthesized rather than analysed. I find one of the most enthralling aspects of computers is limitless communication.

In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, it now seems clear that the shock of the attacks was exploited in America.

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

But if you – if what – the reports are true, what they’re saying is, is that as a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that’s going to increase our costs, we knew that.

The Army will take its lessons learned. They’re excellent at looking into themselves and reflecting on what did we do right, what did we do wrong.

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.

Facts do not speak for themselves. They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.

The concept of Kimye has more cultural significance than what Page Six could write.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

As a Western, ‚The Magnificent Seven‘ was a pretty good film. I don’t think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as ‚Seven Samurai.‘

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

The difference is too nice – Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.

How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.

Sure, women sportswriters look when they’re in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

I’m not an expert on the arms race.