Wisdom and good governance require more than the consistent application of abstract principles.

There is nothing an official hates more than a person who makes up his own mind.

If consequences are removed from enough actions, then the very concept of human agency evaporates, life itself becomes meaningless, and is thenceforth a vacuum…

His greatest fear, or nightmare, is not to be thought hip or cool, and if to avoid that terrible fate it means that he has to glamorize evil--well, so be it.