Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“To be an Irishman is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.”

“The issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect'.”

“Secrecy is a form of government regulation.”

“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody's image.”

“Am I embarrassed to speak for a less than perfect democracy? Not one bit. Find me a better one.”

“Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government.”

“You are not going to be able to have a civil society without a civil government.”

“If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”

“Poverty is not a culture. People would leave it in a minute if they could.”

“The United States has never had a good post-war policy.”

“No one is innocent in the tide of history. Everyone has kings and slaves in his background.”