"Obama won the presidency on the strength of his message and the skills of the messenger. Now the talk of hope and change feels out of tune when so many Americans are out of work, over-mortgaged, and worried that life will be even tougher for their children."

"If history is a guide, a victory for Obama means he faces the prospect of a second term dogged by scandal or inertia."

"Although we were never pals and occasionally butted heads, my relationship with Clinton and his wife, Hillary, made me a better journalist."

"Obama is capable - as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility, a trait not easily associated with him."

"In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains."

"Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike."

"Serenity begins the moment you cease demanding that the external world conform. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows."