David Ignatius

“The surest way to empower the new terrorist gangs would be to withdraw from U.S. diplomatic missions.”

“Yes, Europe needs to be more welcoming, but that's only half of it. Muslims need to embrace the obligations of European residence and citizenship.”

“Russia isn't likely to have any more military success in Syria and Iraq than has the United States.”

“Journalists couldn't do their jobs overseas without taking risks, and the same is true for diplomats and intelligence officers.”

“It's fashionable with the Sarah Palin set to attack Harvard and treat its graduates as elitists. But if you spend any time on campus, you see students drawn from all over the world - an astonishing number these days with roots in Asia - whose chief assets are brainpower and hard work.”

“Politicians often call for sanctions as a way of sounding tough when they don't want to take riskier measures.”

“Images sometimes capture particular periods in history. The unreachable green light, beckoning from across the bay in 'The Great Gatsby,' has become a symbol of the yearning of America in the 1920s.”

“The secret of any kind of reporting is to go with a guide. So if you, you're going to see Hezbollah in Beirut, you go with someone who knows the local people, and you'll be fine.”

“What frustrates U.S. officials is that China sometimes seems more comfortable accommodating a strong United States, as it did in past decades, than partnering with an America that's less dominant.”

“American politics, like most things, is a story of what statisticians describe as the reversion to the mean.”

“Enter the candidates on horseback: While military leaders can sometimes be dangerous in politics, our best generals and admirals embody the democratic values and leadership skills for which the country is yearning.”

“If you want to hear arguments against deploying a big U.S. ground force in Syria, just ask a general.”

“Intelligence services exist to do things that are illegal abroad. They exist to tell lies.”

“I began writing fiction because it was the only way to tell all the intricacies of a real-life spy story.”

“When historians look at the Obama presidency, they're likely to credit him especially for doing the politically unpopular things that were needed in 2009 to salvage the financial wreckage.”

“The value of catastrophic events is that they can help people face up to problems that are otherwise impossible to address.”

“The worm of paranoia begins to eat into even the hardest adversary.”

“Thanksgiving is America's favorite holiday because it's a time when we put aside our cares, much as the struggling Pilgrims did nearly four centuries ago, and eat a gut-busting meal without worrying about the 'out years.'”

“The framers hated the tyranny of King George, but they were also afraid of the mob. That's why they put so many checks and balances into our system, to guard against the excesses of a government that might be inflamed by public passion or perverted by a dictator's whim.”

“Movies have a way of distilling moments in our culture, and 'Gravity' may be the defining film for the lost-in-space year of 2013: Nothing works.”