Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money for instance or war.

The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it if you are scared to go to the brink you are lost.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.

From principles is derived probability but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Teachability and trust always leads to total obedience.

The Obama administration believes in experts and blue-ribbon panels. They believe in creating new agencies and boards. They believe in all that but they just don't trust the entrepreneur's ability to grow her own business and to create jobs.

We have to have a way of dealing with this that engenders confidence trust gives us every chance of getting the right outcome and boosts both sustainability and economic return at the same time.

As a historian what I trust is my ability to take a mass of information and tell a story shaped around it.