Learning essential stuff is as much a discipline as going to the gym or sticking to a diet, and an excellent antidote for the modern condition of being numb and dumb.

The collective memory of America is short.

The American identity is mind-bogglingly various.

After Bush was elected in 2004 - please note that I didn't say 're-elected' - and I was walking around in my befuzzed state of confusion and low-grade depression, I set out more or systematically to read writers who'd grappled with that fundamental question of what America is, why it is the way it is.

Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty preexists government. It's our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process.

That every person is desirous to obtain, with as little sacrifice as possible, as much as possible of the articles of wealth.

We're throwing money down a rat hole drain of public education! We lead the world in public education spending. We lead the world in getting the least for it.

There's a lot of things that you can do where you don't have to have a lot of money. Going to the drive-in, which cost a dollar, and we would make food to take with us to the drive-in. That was a big thrill.