Maureen Dowd: IT is an astonishing thing that historians will look bac...

The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.

Maureen Dowd

motivational-sports success funny

The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery, privacy and paying attention to one thing — or one person — at a time.

Maureen Dowd

silence sound attention

When you're young, and even at times when you're older, it's hard to fathom this: What needs to be nurtured is the stuff that's different, that sets you apart from the pack, rather than the stuff that helps you blend in.

Maureen Dowd

different stuff needs

Wooing the press is an exercise roughly akin to picnicking with a tiger. You might enjoy the meal, but the tiger always eats last.

Maureen Dowd

meals exercise might

Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.

Maureen Dowd

democracy beautiful giving

When I need to work up my nerve to write a tough column, I try to think of myself as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit.

Maureen Dowd

black writing thinking

Paul Ryan, who teamed up with Akin in the House to sponsor harsh anti-abortion bills, may look young and hip and new generation, with his iPod full of heavy metal jams and his cute kids. But he's just a fresh face on a Taliban creed - the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.

Maureen Dowd

cute believe kids

The Republicans, with their crazed Reagan fixation, are a last-gasp party, living posthumously, fighting battles on sex, race, immigration and public education long ago won by the other side. They're trying to roll back the clock, but time is passing them by.

Maureen Dowd

party fighting sex

Everybody is continuously connected to everybody else on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Reddit, e-mailing, texting, faster and faster, with the flood of information jeopardizing meaning. Everybody's talking at once in a hypnotic, hyper din: the cocktail party from hell.

Maureen Dowd

cocktail-parties party talking

Since Hillary Clinton is the first time we've had a woman who was a serious contender for president, it's been an adjustment to watch her more changeable looks, and to see the lengths she goes to get the right lighting and to make the right wardrobe choices. Her campaign is devising strategies to humanize her and make her seem more warm and maternal.

Maureen Dowd

serious choices president

Just because digital technology makes connecting possible doesn't mean you're actually reaching people.

Maureen Dowd

technology mean people

As a woman, I know that if I write about another woman, it will be perceived as a catfight.

Maureen Dowd

another-woman knows writing

Perpetual optimism is annoying. It is a sign that you are not paying attention.

Maureen Dowd

optimism annoying attention

Celebrity is the religion of our time.

Maureen Dowd

our-time

Yet it's true that looks matter in politics... It is also true that perfecting the outer shell has become an obsession in this country... Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and John Edwards almost always look good, and pretty much the same, in dark suits or casual wear. Fred Thompson always looks crepuscular and droopy. Often Hillary Clinton looks great, and sometimes she looks tired, heavier or puffier.

Maureen Dowd

tired dark country

Americans want to be protected, but not at the cost of vitiating the values that make us Americans.

Maureen Dowd

protected cost want

Digital platforms are worthless without content. They're shiny sacks with bells and whistles, but without content, they're empty sacks. It is not about pixels versus print. It is not about how you're reading. It is about what you're reading.

Maureen Dowd

pixels bells reading

The Clintons want to do big worthy things, but they also want to squeeze money from rich people wherever they live on planet Earth, insatiably gobbling up cash for politics and charity and themselves from the same incestuous swirl.

Maureen Dowd

charity earth people

If you're famous enough, the rules don't apply.

Maureen Dowd

ifs enough

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.” ... It would have been better to put this language in the platform: “A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.”

Maureen Dowd

daughter dream loss

IT is an astonishing thing that historians will look back and puzzle over, that in the 21st century, American women were such hunted creatures. Even as Republicans try to wrestle women into chastity belts, the Vatican is trying to muzzle American nuns.