Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth We are happy when we are growing.

The great thing about the United States and the historically magnetic effect it has had on a lot of people like me is its generosity to put it simply.

Great nations are simply the operating fronts of behind-the-scenes vastly ambitious individuals who had become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery.

I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke every last one of 'em.

Great is truth but still greater from a practical point of view is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.

Aggression is simply another name for government.

A world in which government is burdened by historic debt philanthropy has limited resources and the private sector is only interested in its own personal gain is simply unsustainable.

Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage and he expects your absolute loyalty.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.