George Will is among the most learned of today’s pundits, and he has the habit of lacing his columns with big words, arcane references, and scholarly quotations. I urge you to read his latest column, a trenchant criticism of President Barack Obama, linked below. But what I’d like to draw your attention to are some really good, widely-applicable quotations that the column contains. I will cherry pick them for your edification:
“It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man.”— Calvin Coolidge
“To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.”–Alexis de Tocqueville:
’Tis said two things not worth running after are a bus or an economic panacea, because another will come along soon.
“For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back — that’s an earthquake.”–Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman [Actually, this was a character commenting about Willy Loman, not Willy Loman himself, but we’ll give Mr. Will a pass out of gratitude for the Calvin Coolidge quote.]
via George Will: Obama’s empty, strident campaign – The Washington Post.
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