The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.

The past always seems somehow more golden more serious than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness.

It's very attractive to people to be a victim. Instead of having to think out the whole situation about history and your group and what you are doing... if you begin from the point of view of being a victim you've got it half-made. I mean intellectually.

Well what did we buy? Instead of a leaner smarter government we bought a bureaucracy that now tells us which light bulbs to buy and which will put 16 500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's health care bill.

I retire with a smile on my face in good health and ready to spend autumns at my kids' games instead of my own. I'm excited to start the next chapter of my life.

Giving governors more leeway in administering health care could represent a small positive development in the ongoing saga of Obamacare. Unfortunately instead of choosing flexibility President Obama and his left-leaning advisers always default to rigid 'Washington knows best' answers.

I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

I don't know if there is a Democrat who necessarily doesn't believe health care is a right instead of privilege. There is a significant between us and the Republican Party on that issue.

Look I hate to sound like Pollyanna but I literally can't wait to get to work in the morning. I've got steady jobs I've got my health and I'm here in the greatest city in the world. I'd be a pig not to be grateful.

It's long past time we started focusing on the solutions that actually keep women healthy instead of using basic aspects of women's health as a tool of cultural moral and political control.

And so our goal on health care is if we can get instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year it's going up at the level of inflation maybe just slightly above inflation we've made huge progress. And by the way that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That's why we did it.

We can make a commitment to promote vegetables and fruits and whole grains on every part of every menu. We can make portion sizes smaller and emphasize quality over quantity. And we can help create a culture - imagine this - where our kids ask for healthy options instead of resisting them.

A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.

Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

I promised to empower the taxpayer - instead of a handful of big government union bosses.

Women ought to have representatives instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.

This is a generation weaned on Watergate and there is no presumption of innocence and no presumption of good intentions. Instead there is a presumption that without relentless scrutiny the government will misbehave.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.

Let's stop big government energy mandates like cap-and-trade and instead trust the American innovator to make us energy independent.

Honesty integrity and accountability the values which should be the hallmark of this government have instead been thrown under the bus by an arrogant majority casualties in a misguided campaign to shield from accountability those who abuse this House.

Indiscriminate firing by police on people is absolute barbarism. Instead of solving their problems the government is trying to suppress the people by force.