Fifties advertising was a dogmatic art, to the point of pretending to be a science.

— Rick Perlstein

For the first time on Planet Earth (in 1964 America), a nation was made up of more college students than farmers. An unheard-of 42% of high school graduates sought higher education.

— Rick Perlstein

Goldwater had never even considered a non-Arizonan. Like a man on his deathbed, he wanted to be surrounded only by friends.

— Rick Perlstein

Goldwater hardly ever mentioned a statistic. He hardly ever used it EXAMPLE. He presumed you already knew what he meant. Reagan SHOWED you.

— Rick Perlstein

Goldwater's approach to any political problem invariably derived from the evidence of his own eyes.

— Rick Perlstein

Governing is not a hero's profession. It is a profession of compromises.

— Rick Perlstein

He fetishized limits.

— Rick Perlstein

He talks to people's grievances, but he doesn't seem mad. – Elizabeth Drew

— Rick Perlstein

History does not repeat itself. Nor does it unfold in cycles. The real future is contingent, rich beyond imagining, a perennial gob smack, tragic and glorious in equal measure; the pundits' future, spun of 'conventional wisdom,' is only a sucker punch to that common-sense fact.

— Rick Perlstein

Increasingly we confused the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of pleasure.

— Rick Perlstein