People From Oregon

"I was a vocal opponent of the George W. Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq, a strategic blunder made worse by slapdash execution. As we have seen, this star-crossed action took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan, breathed new life into a moribund al Qaeda, and enhanced Iranian influence in this critical region - all outcomes which damaged both the United States and our ally Israel."

"More than 30 years ago, ... I wrote, and Foreign Affairs published, an article now being circulated in the blogosphere as evidence of an alleged anti-Israel point of view. Some commentators reach farther, suggesting that since I have been an active supporter of Barack Obama's presidential bid he, too, is anti-Israel. Both these assertions fall flat after any objective reading of the historical record."

"The reality is that business and investment spending are the true leading indicators of the economy and the stock market. If you want to know where the stock market is headed, forget about consumer spending and retail sales figures. Look to business spending, price inflation, interest rates, and productivity gains."

"The question of the value of Hayek’s work in technical economic theory from the middle 1920s through early 1940s is one over which there is considerable dispute in the academic economic community. Some, such as contemporary Austrian economists Roger Garrison, Mark Skousen, and Gene Callahan, consider this work to be of vital, continuing relevance. Others, such as Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Ronald Coase, while they have the highest opinion of Hayek, do not consider his work in technical economic theory to be of much worth."

"The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society."

"Samuelson's textbook has delivered a great deal of economic wisdom. For many economists, the positive side of the balance sheet has outweighed the negative. Indeed, his defenders might ask: Might the United States and the West have suffered another Great Depression if Samuelson had not emphasized the need for "automatic stabilizers"? Did not Samuelson's heralding of the "mixed" economy curb the appetite of third world countries for national socialism? We will never know, of course, but it is humbling to speculate on whether alterations in principles textbooks might have led to a different U.S. economy."

"I am deeply honored, and genuinely humbled with my selection for Brigadier General. With this promotion, I embrace the opportunity to serve in positions of greater responsibility and to continue to lead the amazing Soldiers in the world’s premier Army. While the DoD position is that orientation is a private matter, participating with family in traditional ceremonies such as the promotion is both common and expected of a leader. I was grateful to be surrounded by my family, friends, and co-workers at this special event. Looking at the photos of Tracey’s joy as she pins the star on my shoulder is a memory that will imprint my heart forever. Her support keeps me Army Strong."

"While the [Dept. of Defense] position is that orientation is a private matter, participating with family in traditional ceremonies such as the promotion is both common and expected of a leader. Looking at the photos of Tracey's joy as she pins the star on my shoulder is a memory that will imprint my heart forever. Her support keeps me Army Strong."

"A Soldier should never have to hide their family. The strength of our Soldiers is our families."

"Even though a majority of the rank and file opposed DADT before it was repealed, Smith's promotion signifies an increased acceptance of gays in the military that goes beyond the actual law."

"He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn't evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world. Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares.It occurred to Mellas that he could create the possibility of good or evil through caring. He could nullify the indifferent world. But in so doing he opened himself up to the pain of watching it get blown away. His killing that day would not have been evil if the dead soldiers hadn't been loved by mothers, sisters, friends, wives. Mellas understood that in destroying the fabric that linked those people, he had participated in evil, but this evil had hurt him as well. He also understood that his participation in evil, was a result of being human. Being human was the best he could do. Without man there would be no evil. But there was also no good, nothing moral built over the world of fact. Humans were responsible for it all. He laughed at the cosmic joke, but he felt heartsick."

"Combat is like crack cocaine. It's an enormous high, but it has enormous costs. Any sane person would never do crack. Combat is like that. You're scared, you're terrified, you're miserable, but then the fighting starts, and suddenly everything is at stake, your life, your friend's lives. It's almost transcendence because you're no longer a person. You lose that sense, you're just the platoon, and the platoon can't be beat. And not to mention there's a savage joy in overcoming your enemy, just a savage joy. And I think we make a big mistake if we say, 'oh war is hell'. We all know the 'war is hell' story—it is—but there's an enormously exhilarating part of it."

"One of the things that I learned in the war is that we're not the top species on the planet because we're nice. We are a very aggressive species; it is in us. People talk a lot about how well the military turns kids into killing machines, and I'll always argue that it's just finishing school. What we do with civilization is that we learn to inhibit and rope in these aggressive tendencies, and we have to recognize them. I worry about a whole country that doesn't recognize them, because think of how many times we get ourselves into scrapes as a nation because we're always the 'good guys'. Sometimes, I think if we thought we weren't always the good guys, we might actually get into less wars."

"War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up failures perpetrated by adults."

"“You fought for your freedom and won a different kind of prison. I will fight for mine—” “You can’t fight me,” Tearle reminded him harshly. “I know.” In the placid light, his face looked chilled and very weary. “But I can die.”"

"Water has its moods, flowing or still; it can lure you like a lover, or look as bleak as a broken heart."

"I was running from my own thoughts as much as anything. I simply wanted to untangle myself from the web I had touched. A single, sticky, quivering strand of it was all I needed to warn me away. I did not want to think about people. I wanted the trees, the scents and colors, the shifting shadows of the wood, which spoke a language I understood. I wished I could simply disappear in it, live like a bird or a fox through the winter, and leave the things I had glimpsed to resolve themselves without me."

"He was silent a moment, struggling. He said finally, “But you had a right to be angry.” “Yes. But not to hurt those I love, or myself.”"

"“The Riddle Master himself lost the key to his own riddles one day,” he said in his deep, reed-pure voice, “and he found it again at the bottom of his heart.”"

"Wisdom never learned silence, and it is most annoying when least wanted."

"The small red eyes regarded him, unblinking. “What would you give me for all the wisdom of the world?” “Nothing.” He turned back to his work. “I have heard you know the answers to every riddle save one. That will be the one I need answering.”"

"Men see what they are most afraid of."

"He kissed her anyway, lightly on the cheek, before she turned to get her coat, thinking how long he had known her and how little he knew her and how little he knew of how much or little there was in her to know."

"What concern of mine are your affairs? Or Coren’s? What kind of peace would there be in me or in my house if I took interest in the wars and feuds that you weave in the courts below? I do not understand such things. I understand only what lies within my walls."

"I do not want to choose which one of you I must love or hate. Here, I am free to do neither. I want no part of your bitterness."

"Perhaps there had never been anything at all to see."

"“But, Corbet, there were things—between us—” “You imagined many of them. You wanted them to be true, and so they were. But only to you.”"

"I didn’t know anymore what love meant, or why we were not all better off without it."

"Do you care for me at all? Or do you only need me?"

"She lies like the moon lies, a different face every night, all but one of them false, and the one true face as barren and hard as stone. Why do you believe her?"

"“Love is what we say it is,” she said fiercely. “That’s all I know. That’s all anyone knows about it. I’m sorry.”"

"I could not find my way back in dreams, I knew then. They were memory and desire, terror and hope; they told me only what I already knew."

"We humanitarians, as our name suggests, believe that man has an ethical duty to man. We believe that the value of any system is measured by the consideration given to all human beings, not just to a favored class: and by that standard, our present system is a miserable failure."

"A society that put more emphasis on birth than ability was likely to breed ability out of its ruling class."

"Eagles had made a realist of him. He believed in facts, and in altering your viewpoint to fit them, no matter what they were. That was the way you survived and stayed sane; it was hard, it meant sacrifices—he had already lost many things that he valued deeply—but it was the only way."

"Voluntary birth control methods only work on the people who choose to use ’em. A population check that doesn’t work on everybody doesn’t work at all, because it simply breeds out the ones who use it. The only population check that really works is one that affects everybody, like a limit of space or food."

"No progress, either moral or material, can be made in a world which is frozen, like ours, into a rigid mold of suppression of liberties."

"“Don’t lose your temper,” said Ruell evenly. “It’s your worst fault, except for ignorance.”"

"He was going to die. His mind flinched back in horror from that, but it was still there, grinning, implacable. His body would rot under the ground, while delicious things were still happening in the sunlight."

"When two alien cultures meet, the stronger must transform the weaker with love or hate."

"It's a cookbook!"

"Science fiction … means what we point to when we say it."

"There is a destiny that makes us brothers: None goes his way alone: All that we send into the lives of others Comes back onto our own. I care not what his temples or his creeds, One thing holds firm and fast That into his fateful heap of days and deeds The soul of man is cast."

"His reputation has faded because of the somewhat dated nature of his verse; nevertheless, he remains a notable figure for his contributions to American poetry. His work stands as an example of what American critics and readers valued near the turn of the century. His poetry offers insight into an important phase in the development of American letters."

"As we go star-stilled in the mystic garden, All the prose of this life run there to rhyme, How eagerly then will the poor heart pardon All of these hurts of Time!Ah, yes, in that hour of our souls dream-driven, In that high, white hour, O my wild sea-bride, The tears and the years will be all forgiven, … And all be justified."

"It will all come back — the wasted splendor, The heart's lost youth like a breaking flower, The dauntless dare, and the wistful, tender Touch of the April hour."

"I will find you there where our low life heightens, Where the door of the Wonder again unbars, Where the old love lures and the old fire whitens, In the Stars behind the stars."

"There are more lives yet, there are more worlds waiting, For the way climbs up to the eldest sun, Where the white ones go to their mystic mating, And the Holy Will is done."

"Our ways go wide and I know not whither, But my song will search through the worlds for you, Till the Seven Seas waste and the Seven Stars wither, And the dream of the heart comes true.I am out to the roads and the long, long questing, On dark tides driven, on great winds blown: I pass the runs of the world, unresting, I sail to the unknown."

"So I go to the long adventure, lifting My face to the far, mysterious goals, To the last assize, to the final sifting Of gods and stars and souls."