“Hate and love are essentially the same in that the person who loves is as easily manipulated as a person who hates”

“I loathe him. He stands for everything I hate in Washington. The right schools, houses in Georgetown, farms in Virginia, quiet meetings at their clubs. They've got their tight little world and you don't break in--they run it all. The bastards. The superior, self-inflated gentry of Washington. They use other men's intellects, other men's work, wrapping it all into decisions bearing their imprimaturs. And if you're on the outside, you become part of that amorphous entity, a 'damn fine staff.' (Alfred Gillette)”

“I mean, we're all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren't we?”

“The silence lasted precisely five seconds, during which time eyes roamed other eyes, several throats were cleared, and no one moved in his chair. It was as if a decision were being reached without discussion: evasion was to be avoided. Congressman Efrem Walters, out of the hills of Tennessee by way of the Yale Law Review, was not to be dismissed with facile circumlocution that dealt with the esoterica of clandestine manipulations. Bullshit was out.”

“You're on your own now. You are not helpless. You will find your way.”

“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.”

“There'll come a moment when you think you can make it, and you'll try.”