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Kindle Notes & Highlights
When everything is a crisis and a scandal, the end result is that nothing is.
Our attention spans have withered, and our national dialogue has been debased by the politics of personal destruction. When someone speaks, the mob attacks the person, and the ideas are left in the rubble. Then the herd moves on to a new controversy.
too many people have confused loyalty to a man with loyalty to the country.
“God grant that men of principle be our principal men,”
we should invest in someone whose virtues outweigh their vices.
A man’s character is tested when he’s given power.
It’s been said that character is a tree, and reputation its shadow.
Intelligence is one of those qualities that, if you insist you have it, you probably don’t.
It’s one thing to lose your life, but to willingly give up your legacy on top of it is an act of eternal sacrifice. This is the ethos that defines the intelligence community.
Humans tend to interpret new information as evidence to support preexisting views.
The epistemological crisis means Americans can’t find common ground because they can’t agree on the same set of facts. The president fudges the truth so frequently on so many issues that we have difficulty reaching a common starting point when we debate one another.
people are dumber and crueler in large groups.
it’s easier to win with the bully on your side.
History has shown the consequences of a climate where officials focus more on attending to “the principal” than heeding their own first principles.
It’s easier to fix mistakes wrought by bad policies than those wrought by bad people.
