For some reason, on that sparkling afternoon last week, I actually saw the coal that was passing by and it set me to thinking how important coal was to our everyday lives when I was a little boy.

In economic panics throughout history, the wiping out of the savings accounts of lower earners and the middle class has often led to social revolution, sometimes violent upheavals.

What the F.D.I.C. does is to put the full faith and credit of the United States government behind every savings account in the nation, up to a limit that has changed over the years and stands now at $100,000.

A salute from this corner to President Bush for saying he was willing to investigate raising or eliminating the cap on salaries subject to the Social Security tax.

We like to believe that, in our lifetime, the human condition is improving.

America has faced much more difficult times, including potential national extinction, without flinching.

It is impossible to exaggerate the wide, and widening, gulf between the American attitude on the Iraq war and the view from our friends across the Atlantic.

The quality that defines us as Americans is the courage to respond to being hit. The courage to root out and destroy the killers. And, most importantly, the courage to hold on to our values and protect our hard-won freedoms while doing it.

No matter how many troops we have in place or how long they stay, we cannot impose a parliamentary democracy there any more than the insurgents can impose a theocracy.

Currently, 94 out of 100 of us pay the Social Security tax all year round.

Social Security is at last on the nation's front burner.

America, the temple of invention and industry, doesn't make things anymore.

The kind of Iraq that emerges from all of this is ultimately out of our hands.

Whatever its other limitations, the Big Apple and those who live there make room for their dogs and cats, take good care of them and abide by the rules made necessary by a huge population.

We don't defeat evil by becoming evil.

When runaway inflation and bank failures struck in Germany in the 1920s, the middle class was destroyed, which led directly to the rise of the Nazis.

We decided that how we react to and treat those fellow mortals, wild and domestic, tells us more about ourselves than, perhaps, some of us want to know.

Perhaps our Irish friends should not so completely turn their backs on their historical dishes, no matter how many jokes they might have to endure.

We didn't defeat the Nazis by becoming Nazis.

In matters large and small, many people seemed concerned about churlishness, an ugliness in our relationships that appears to be increasing rather than decreasing.

Our actions in the Middle East over the last 15 years have already guaranteed radical Muslims quite enough ammunition to kill Americans for the next century, even if Guantanamo did not exist.

In my opinion, the president is right to address future funding, even though Social Security will show a surplus through 2018 and will not run out of funds until 2042.

Those who actually hate animals to the point of being cruel to them are outcasts to the rest of us, no matter where in the world they live.

As I listened, it occurred to me that interest in and affection for the animals that share the planet with us may be a more unifying force than any other.

It is statesmanlike for the administration and Congress to look to our nation's welfare beyond their terms in office.

Our nest eggs, no matter how small, are safe.

The worst thing that can happen to us in an ideological struggle is to become what we are fighting.

One of the pleasant duties of America's most famous announcers during the relatively short swing era of the big bands was to host late-night remotes from some of the most famous ballrooms throughout the country.

Respect and affection for animals, particularly those who share our homes, recognize no geographic borders.

Conventional wisdom holds that setting a timetable for getting American troops out of Iraq would be a mistake.

For some reason, on that sparkling afternoon last week, I actually saw the coal that was passing by and it set me to thinking how important coal was to our everyday lives when I was a little boy.

Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion.

Our supporters support us for one reason, people pray for us for one reason - because of the healing ministry.

Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.

In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely, for an infinite time. It is only myth that attempts to say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years ago.

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

When Frank the Pug is singing I Will Survive, the only reason it's funny is that Will is in that shot trying not to get angry. A shot of a dog singing I Will Survive on its own will not get a laugh.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.

I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.

The reason it has relevance is because I, as a popular Arab personality - the Arab people like me and respect me - thought it was time for me to make an ever so tiny statement about what I thought about this whole thing.

What is guilt? Guilt is the pledge drive constantly hammering in our heads that keeps us from fully enjoying the show. Guilt is the reason they put the articles in Playboy.

But there is no obvious reason for holding that some normal adults are entitled to make choices for other normal adults, as paternalists of both left and right believe.

Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling.

Being a father, well, I don't know if this is a change, but it makes me want to get out of here faster. Get off the clock. Just 'cause the baby is my reason for living, my reason for coming to work.

Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion.

I'm really starting to think everything happens for a reason.