“He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check.”

“The United States, like any great power, is always going to have an intelligence operation, and some electronic surveillance is obligatory in the modern world.”

“He denounced self-pity and pitied himself.”

“The result always mattered more than the rhetoric.”

“He did what good lawyers always do. He shifted his argument in the direction his audience was already going.”

“Purple prose attracts attention more than converts.”

“He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check.”

“Toughened or coarsened by their worldly lives, the other dissenters could shrug and move on, but Souter couldn't. His whole life was being a judge.”

“In the end, notwithstanding a surreal detour in the 1970s, Patricia led the life she for which she was destined back in Hillsborough. The story of Patricia Hearst, as extraordinary as it once was, had a familiar, even predictable ending. She did not turn into a revolutionary. She turned into her mother.”