“We live in a center-right country. Now watch me smile oleaginously.”

“Or, as Jackson would have said: The people, sir-the people will set things right.”

“In the closed circle of the war cabinet, pounded by terrible report after terrible report, there had been uncertainty about whether he could fend off the drift to exploring a deal with Hitler. The determination of the larger group trumped the tentativeness of the smaller, and Churchill fulfilled his role as leader by disentangling himself from defeatism--one of his singular achievements at the end of May 1940.”

“The service--a moved Roosevelt called it the "keynote" of his meeting with Churchill--was working a kind of magic, which is one of the points of liturgy and theater: to use the dramatic to convince people of a reality they cannot see.”

“Steadiness of faith, was, in the long run, as illuminating and essential as sophistication of thought.”

“He dreamed big but understood that dreams become reality only when their champions are strong enough and wily enough to bend history to their purposes.”

“Our greatest leaders are neither dreamers nor dictators: They are, like Jefferson, those who articulate national aspirations yet master the mechanics of influence and know when to depart from dogma.”