The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations

by John McCain

In America, we have always believed that if the day was a disappointment, we would win tomorrow. That’s what John Lewis believed when he marched across this bridge.

You can fail to tell the truth. But the truth cannot be a failure even if it’s ignored or rejected.

But, as Winston Churchill observed, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

We are an important check on the powers of the Executive. Our consent is necessary for the President to appoint jurists and powerful government officials and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the President’s subordinates. We are his equal!

we’re part of a community that’s larger than our political cohort, that we all, despite our disagreements, have shared interests and values.

Humility is the self-knowledge that you possess as much inherent dignity as anyone else, and not one bit more.

We are citizens of a republic made of shared ideals forged in a new world to replace the tribal enmities that tormented the old one.