A summer vacation seems wonderful in prospect, but then, in the actual experience, it often diminishes to the point of becoming a series of irritations, until, eventually, it retreats into memory and, voila, becomes wonderful again.
And therein lies the question -- if you look forward to your vacation with great anticipation and remember it with wistful pleasure, does it really matter if you didn't actually enjoy it?
A working republic is a tangible entity, consisting of the government, the governed and a neutral third party mediator called the Constitution.
A working democracy is an intangible ideal, defined by an enlightened leadership and supported by an essentially non-political electorate amenable to leadership.
The most basic progressive belief is that if we can get the rich to pay their fair share, we won't have to pay ours.
The most basic conservative belief is that if you weren't born to opportunity, you had your chance.
A political party is like any other conspiracy, the people it targets believing they are part of the conspiracy.
If we of the middle class nearly always support the rich over the poor, it is because we rightly believe that the poor want what we have while wrongly believing that the rich don't.
A free-enterprise system is a meritocracy where a few enterprising individuals eventually control most of the wealth, and where, if left unbridled, the most enterprising single individual eventually controls all the wealth.
What if you eliminated all the faults in your character only to discover that the faults were the only character you had?
There's nothing like a self-improvement program to discover what your friends used to like about you.
If we learn from our mistakes, shouldn't a job resume be a list of our mistakes?
You can be your own best friend, but happiness really begins when you become your own second-best friend.
It is less what love sees in you than what love chooses to overlook.
The hardest part of marrying "for better or worse" is when it's better for one and worse for the other.
Mozart died at 35. Alexander the Great died at 32. Makes you wonder what great things you might have achieved if you had only died young.
Next time my analyst says, "If you're unhappy, whose fault do you suppose that is?" -- I got a list of names in my hip pocket.
To ask, "What will it all matter in the end?" is not an excuse to do nothing but a reason to act without delay.
To call anyone a complete fool is nearly always premature.
One thing you learn to do in life is to accept an apology that is past its "best if said by" date.
The more preposterous a belief, the louder the claim that there are irrefutable proofs nobody knows about.
"We are usually more successful when the goal is the reward than when the reward is the goal."
"The best teachers set their expectations high but not so high as to rule out being pleasantly surprised."
Remember, as you plan for the future, that the future does not announce its arrival with a grand trumpet call. It presents itself, rather, in small segments which we call, "for the time being," and it is what we do in these segments, -- what we do "for the time being" -- that ends up as our future.
It is not so much a "road to success" as an "exit ramp to success," lest the road itself become a never-ending journey.
The devil, on God: "If you ask me, He does have a tendency to demonize His opponents."
It is possible, you sadly discover, to know every nuance and still lack the first clue.
To be happy, though poor, is not only possible but fast becoming one's patriotic duty.
I am not your dog, but if every time you saw me, you gave me a backrub, I would run to greet you, too.
The difference between instruction and education? Parents instruct their children; children educate their parents.
If you spend all your days being someone else's messenger, blame the messenger.
