Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”

“Poverty is not a culture. People would leave it in a minute if they could.”

“The United States has never had a good post-war policy.”

“No one is innocent in the tide of history. Everyone has kings and slaves in his background.”

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

“The issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect'.”

“The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced.”

“Defining deviancy down.”

“There is no great mystery to building a monument. You hire a sculptor, you make a model, and you keep going.”

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

“The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.”