The sequester has forced liberals to clarify their conviction that whatever the government's size is at any moment, is the bare minimum neccessary to forestall intolerable suffering. George Will More Quotes by George Will More Quotes From George Will The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement. George Will perfection work character It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is. George Will positive-thinking wise ordinary The future has a way of arriving unannounced. George Will future change history The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted. George Will agency government law The more one works, the better one works and the more one wants to work. George Will want work The most important business of one generation is the raising of the next generation. Nothing else you do in life will be as deeply satisfying. George Will next generations important Big government inevitably drives an upward distribution of wealth to those whose wealth, confidence and sophistication enable them to manipulate government. George Will distribution-of-wealth bigs government Few things are as stimulating as other people's calamities observed from a safe distance. George Will distance destiny people The great task of life is transmission: the task of transmitting the essential tools and graces of life from our parents to our children George Will parent grace children Pessimism is as American as apple pie - frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese. George Will cheesy apples pie We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 per county. The idea that we can't assimilate these 8-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous. George Will country years ideas This is an age in which one cannot find common sense without a search warrant. George Will common-sense age common I suppose there's a melancholy tone at the back of the American mind, a sense of something lost. And it's the lost world of Thomas Jefferson. It is the lost sense of innocence that we could live with a very minimal state, with a vast sense of space in which to work out freedom. George Will work-out space mind If you seek Hamilton's monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton's country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government. George Will government strong country It is said that God gave us memory so we could have roses in winter. But it is also true that without memory we could not have self in any season. The more memories you have, the more you have. That is why, as Swift said, No wise man ever wished to be younger. George Will wise winter memories Freedom is not only the absence of external restraints. It is also the absence of irresistible internal compulsions, unmanageable passion, and uncensorable highlights. George Will censorship passion speech Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character. George Will government character believe Once when the Yankee's Lou Pinella was batting he questioned a Palermo strike call. Pinella demanded, "Where was that pitch at?" Palermo told him that a man wearing Yankee pinstripes in front of 30,000 people should not end a sentence with a preposition. So Pinella, no dummy, said, "OK, where was that pitch at, asshole?" George Will umpires yankees men Modern man's capacity for destruction is quixotic evidence of humanity's capacity for reconstruction. The powerful technological agents we have unleashed against the environment include many of the agents we require for its reconstruction. George Will powerful humanity men Liberalism is wrong because it doesn't work. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. George Will failing bigs political
