Something is happening to Britain and the British. Or has happened. We are said to be passing through a transition, or a turning point, or a transformation; nobody is quite sure which.

We criticize, copy, patronize, idolize and insult but we never doubt that the U.S. has a unique position in the history of human hopes.

We are also further than ever from equality of opportunity.

According to Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief, Bush was so obsessed with Iraq that he failed to take action against Osama Bin Laden despite repeated warnings from his intelligence experts.

The president is being denounced for not taking the kind of pre-emptive action in Afghanistan that he has been so passionately denounced for taking in Iraq. Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

One of the unsung freedoms that go with a free press is the freedom not to read it.

Something is happening to Britain and the British. Or has happened. We are said to be passing through a transition, or a turning point, or a transformation; nobody is quite sure which.

For all its terrible faults, in one sense America is still the last, best hope of mankind, because it spells out so vividly the kind of happiness that most people actually want, regardless of what they are told they ought to want.

We want a system that will improve consistency and steadiness in the quality of government.

A majority in all parties do, I think, want to see local government recover its old vigour and independence.

What the world needs now is more Americans. The U.S. is the first nation on earth deliberately dedicated to letting people choose what they want and giving them a chance to get it.

America slept because most Americans preferred it that way.

No constitution is or can be perfectly symmetrical, what it can and must be is generally accepted as both fair and usable.

I think it's a pity that in many people's minds constitutional reform and PR have come to mean much the same thing.

In real terms, there is a greater disparity of earnings between the very rich and the very poor.

Of course great politicians are always liable to be wrong about something, and the more people tell them they are wrong, the more stubbornly they defend their error.

Defenders of the status quo will argue that this system has served us well over the centuries, that our parliamentary traditions have combined stability and flexibility and that we should not cast away in a minute what has taken generations to build.

All the research shows that being married, with all its ups and downs, is by far the most effective way of making young men law-abiding and giving them a sense of purpose and self-worth.

It's true that I'm taking a break from writing a regular column to do other things but it's got nothing to do with what dear Simon has or has not written.

For the first half of this century, High Court judges have been cautious to the point of timidity in expressing any criticism of governmental action; the independence of the judiciary has been of a decidedly subordinate character.

Sexual relations, of course, have existed, exist, and will exist. However, this is in no way connected with the indispensability of the existence of the family.

Relationships are eternal. The 'separation' is another chapter in the relationship. Often, letting go of the old form of the relationship becomes a lesson in pure love much deeper than any would have learned had the couple stayed together.

A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?

The difference between a tool and a machine is not capable of very precise distinction; nor is it necessary, in a popular explanation of those terms, to limit very strictly their acceptation.

You have to take control of your own life, your own destiny, and your own careers. You can't leave everything up to someone else, 'cause then you can look at them and blame them.

There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

I grew up as a Catholic, and there was so much that was beautiful there, and also so much that was troubling. The whole patriarchal thing, the whole male-dominated approach, really bothered me.

I've always struggled so much just to appreciate myself.

It is well to be prepared for life as it is, but it is better to be prepared to make life better than it is.

The situation in disability sport is growing, and girls like Ellie Cole are doing wonders.

If only mosquitoes sucked fat instead of blood.

I was born and raised in L.A. My father was born and raised in L.A. So we're old hands here.

I know that when Terry and I were together, 10 years ago, he did not appreciate it when people would ask him what it is like being partnered with a celebrity. Precisely because it suggested that he had no value.

According to a study by Achieve Incorporated, Texas is the first state to make a college-prep curriculum the standard coursework in high school, starting with this year's ninth grade class.

I played piano back in my elementary school days and I sang a cappella back in college.

The key to being a good manager or a good entrepreneur is to pick the right people. Pick the right people, and they'll make you look good.

I don't think journalists in World War II were objective about the Nazis, and I don't think they should have been.

I think its unethical to take money for poor quality performance.

True greatness consists in being great in little things.

We were the only black family in an estate with 1,000 white families. Liverpool being quite racist in the Sixties, it was a bit grim growing up.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

The truth is I hate cocktail parties when the only person I know is my supposed date, and he abandons me the minute we come in the door.

I think I'm very good at reading coverage and knowing where I want to go with the ball before the ball is snapped.

The challenge is that the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea. And crazy ideas are very risky to attempt.

When I was a kid, I wrestled my high school amateur wrestling in junior year.