Literature offered a safe circumscribed outlet for sadness.

— Richard Brookhiser

Most principles are limp until they are tested.

— Richard Brookhiser

One of the highest marks of citizenship is fighting for the common defense.

— Richard Brookhiser

She became at once more intimate and more exalted.

— Richard Brookhiser

She noticed, as an exceptional woman would, that her stepson was exceptional.

— Richard Brookhiser

Since we never get everything we want or need from our families, we look for sufficiency in surrogates.

— Richard Brookhiser

The lightheaded and the fashionable are always willing to shed tears for distant underdogs.

— Richard Brookhiser

The towering genius is not apolitical.

— Richard Brookhiser

To use the past, he had to save it from aspects of itself.

— Richard Brookhiser

Young, healthy communities can afford to roll the dice.

— Richard Brookhiser