Peggy Noonan

“The battle for the mind of Ronald Reagan was like the trench warfare of World War I: never have so many fought so hard for such barren terrain.”

“You don't have to be in 'Who's Who' to know what's what.”

“Candor is a compliment; it implies equality. It's how true friends talk.”

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

“A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make things happen.”

“We are all in this together, by ourselves.”

“Humor is the ovum of dissent.”

“The point of a presidential speech is not just to be something you read, it’s to be something you see and hear.”

“Great speeches are not written, they are rewritten.”

“I think there is a longing in everyone for a deeper meaning to their lives.”

“In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant... He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever.”

“A great speech is literature.”

“The great thing about the American public is that they're reasonable. They're not stupid. They're not left or right. They're reasonable.”

“Our age is cynical. We are wary of proclamations of belief, and we are wary of those who proclaim them.”

“A certain amount of reverence for the past is a good thing, and a certain amount of disrespect for the same past is a good thing.”

“Declarations of war have a way of focusing the mind.”

“What you need in the White House is a lot of people who are aware of the seating chart, but not obsessed by it.”

“Grace is a thing you can't earn from others, and you can't give to yourself.”