Wit & Wisdom

“There is something about a national convention that makes it as fascinating as a revival or a hanging. It is vulgar, it is ugly, it is stupid, it is tedious, it is hard upon both the higher cerebral centers and the gluteus maximus, and yet it is somehow charming.”

H.L. Mencken, quoted in The Wall Street Journal

“There go the people. I must follow them. I am their leader.’’

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Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, quoted in The New York Times

“The final lesson of history: ‘Let’s never go back there again!’”

Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger

“Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.’’

Eugene McCarthy, quoted in the London Independent

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

Basketball coach John Wooden, quoted in the Memphis Commercial Appeal

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, quoted in United Press International

“Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.”

Evelyn Waugh, quoted in the London Times