“A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.”

“[...]to be real--to become fluent, natural, to cut out the detour that sweeps us around what's fundamental to events, preventing us from touching their core: the detour that makes us all second-hand and second-rate.”

“Rather than arriving five hours late and flustered, it would be better all around if he were to arrive five hours and a few extra minutes late, but triumphantly in command.”

“People think six is a great many, when it's children. ...they don't mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think that you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.”

“The great city of New York wields more of the destinies of this great nation that five times the population of any other portion of the country.”

“Sean, as always, gets by on one word while everyone else needs five or six.”