"Mr. Obama still has time to reverse course. A great deal depends on it. To fail on health care yet again might well be the 'Waterloo' Republicans dream of."

"What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party."

"Our laws governing lobbying and campaign contributions have struck the right balance between the wishes of the people and those of private industry, so why are we so quick to doubt that the same great results can be achieved by putting the government's justice-dealing branch on the same market-based course?"

"We have become a society that can't self-correct, that can't address its obvious problems, that can't pull out of its nosedive. And so to our list of disasters let us add this fourth entry: we have entered an age of folly that - for all our Facebooking and the twittling tweedle-dee-tweets of the twitterati - we can't wake up from."

"Never underestimate the power of the river of time shapes the stones of destiny."

"The test of character in leadership is how one behaves in moments of unvarnished power. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"President Obama's record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship."

"It is a profound truth that rise early, act with intent, and let your accomplishments speak with silent authority."