In the spring of 1994 I decided not to seek reelection to the Senate. I had made the decision 12 years earlier Christmas Day of 1982 just after I had been first elected to a full term that I would do the best I could for a limited time.

I wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.

Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: there's the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.

When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I'm sure it made the work seem that much more urgent.

It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact in every presidential election since 1950 - except Goldwater in '64 - the Republican would have won if only the men had voted.

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.

Analysts may be correct that the presidential election won't primarily turn on entitlements reform but by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate Mitt Romney can contrary to conventional wisdom make it a winning issue and lay the foundation for a reform mandate when he wins.

We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.

The Pentagon still has not given a name to the Iraqi war. Somehow 'Operation Re-elect Bush' doesn't seem to be popular.

We have a war dictator who was not elected he snuck in. so he punishes people that threaten him in any way or even say something he doesn't like. It has no resemblance to democracy.

There's an assault on human sexuality as Judge Scalia said they've taken sides in the culture war and on top of that if we have a democracy the democratic processes should be that we can elect representatives who will share our point of view and vote those things into law.

People never lie so much as after a hunt during a war or before an election.

Throughout the 20th century the Republican Party benefited from a non-interventionist foreign policy. Think of how Eisenhower came in to stop the Korean War. Think of how Nixon was elected to stop the mess in Vietnam.

Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier.

When political and business leaders tell the public - any public - 'We don't trust you to make the right decision' - they prejudice that electorate against the very proposals they want it to accept and undermine public confidence in themselves.

The duty of responsibility placed on any MP is one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed and I for one don't believe the Conservative Party would abuse that trust by selecting someone who did not have the goods to do the job just for the sake of media coverage.

Not everyone can be trusted. I think we all have to be very selective about the people we trust.

You'd think experienced political professionals would know better than to place their trust in exit polls notoriously inaccurate surveys that had John Kerry winning the 2004 election by five points when he actually lost by three.

It would be a pity if frustrated by the price of travel we elected to become a society that never made contact that never gave SETI a fair chance.

I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.

My favorite time in the cycles of public life is the time when the Pope is dead and they haven't elected a new one. There's no one in the world who is infallible for those weeks. And you know I don't miss it.

As recent as the year 2000 we won elections by saying we shouldn't be the policemen of the world and that we should not be nation building. And its time we got those values back into this country.

Mr. President you were elected to lead. You chose to follow. And now it's time for you to get out of the way.

As societies grow decadent the language grows decadent too. Words are used to disguise not to illuminate action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.