A biography for Charles Krauthammerhasn’t been written yet.
“אומנם המעשה הפוליטי ראוי לכבוד מסויג בזכות העוצמה שהוא מפעיל, אולם ההגות הפוליטית ראויה ליראת כבוד בזכות יכולתה לשקף גדלות ועומק, כפי שמוכיחות המילים הנשגבות של מייסדי ארצות הברית.”
“החומה הטובה ביותר נגד עריצות איננה מוסריות (מוסריות עוזרת, אבל אף פעם אי אפשר לסמוך רק עליה), אלא אמביציה שתעמוד נגד אמביציה מנוגדת, וסיעה שתתמודד נגד סיעה אחרת.”
“הפוליטיקה היא תעלת המגן והחומה המגינות עלינו מפראי האדם. כשאין מצליחים לרסן אותם – הכול עולה באש. כל פרצי ההתלהבות הפוליטית ההמונית במאה העשרים מלמדים על יכולתה האדירה של הפוליטיקה לחולל מעגלי הרס המתרחבים והולכים.”
“מה שחשוב באמת, מה שמפעיל את הנפש, מרומם את המחשבה, מצית את הדמיון, ומה שבזכותו אנחנו אנושיים באמת הוא כל הניסיונות, תחומי הידע, המבוכות והשעשועים המשתרעים מחוץ לפוליטיקה.”
“כדי להבין איך עובדת הפוליטיקה האמריקנית, עליכם להבין את החוק הבסיסי הזה: שמרנים חושבים שליברלים טיפשים, ליברלים חושבים ששמרנים רשעים.”
“When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job. But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, it adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born.”
“Trump's behavior is deeply disturbing but hardly surprising. His mercurial nature is not the product of a post-inaugural adder sting at Mar-a-Lago. It's been there all along. And the American electorate chose him nonetheless.”
“Whenever you're faced with an explanation of what's going on in Washington, the choice between incompetence and conspiracy, always choose incompetence.”
“Newt Gingrich had to work hard - getting Republican candidates to sign the Contract with America - to nationalize the election that swept Republicans to victory in 1994. A Democratic anti-Tea Party campaign would do that for the Republicans - nationalize the election, gratis - in 2010.”
“Obama is a leveler. He has come to narrow the divide between rich and poor. For him the ultimate social value is fairness. Imposing it upon the American social order is his mission.”
“Obama and the Democrats were so critical of what Bush did, the interrogations, the secret prisons, Guantanamo and all of that, and even the war on terror. Obama won't use the word. He's made war on the war on terror.”
“If you believe that health care is a public good to be guaranteed by the state, then a single-payer system is the next best alternative. Unfortunately, it is fiscally unsustainable without rationing.”
“As most who have engaged in competitive sports know, there's nothing to match the amplitude of emotion brought by losing.”
“The liberal vision of America is that it should be less arrogant, less unilateral, more internationalist. In Obama's view, America would subsume itself under a fuzzy internationalism in which the international community, which I think is a fiction, governs itself through the U.N.”
“Life and consciousness are the two great mysteries. Actually, their substrates are the inanimate. And how do you get from neurons shooting around in the brain to the thought that pops up in your head and mine? There's something deeply mysterious about that. And if you're not struck by the mystery, I think you haven't thought about it.”
“To his credit, Obama didn't just come to Washington to be someone. Like Reagan, he came to Washington to do something - to introduce a powerful social democratic stream into America's deeply and historically individualist polity.”
“Chess: It's like alcohol. It's a drug. I have to control it, or it could overwhelm me. I have a regular Monday night game at my home, and I do play a little online.”
“I believe in what I believe, and I think after all these years I've heard a lot of arguments, and I'm convinced by the superiority of the arguments that are made on the conservative side. I think that's a better way to run a society.”
“Clashes of values and the struggle for primacy constitute a constant in human history that accounts for that other constant - conflict and war.”
“I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life - full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living.”