“A cardinal tenet of conservatism is that social inertia is – and ought to be – strong. It discourages and, if necessary, defeats the political grandiosity of those who would attempt to engineer the future by rupturing connections with the past.”

“Football combines the two worst features of American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”

“if we could tax Americans' cognitive dissonance we could balance the budget. The American people want all kinds of incompatible things, they're human beings, and they want high services, low taxes, and an omnipresent, omniprominent welfare state.”

“The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”

“Coarseness occurs in a land where platitude inflames this sense of entitlement to more of almost everything, but less of manners and taste, with their irritating intimations of authority and hierarchy.”

“Behavior was better when cinemas were opulent.”

“Television news is akin to audible wallpaper.”

“Our hatred of government is not caused mainly by government's goals, whatever their wisdom, but by government's techniques." Philip Howard”

“Washington DC is happiest when in indignation overdrive.”

“Law, rather than harnessing the passions, is increasingly pressed into their service.”

“Americans would prefer that immigrants do their jobs and then disappear at the end of the day.”