Jacob Weisberg

“Donald Trump is an archetypal grifter. Using the presidency to promote your golf courses, hotels, and real estate business is grifting. So is getting people to pay a premium for buildings with your name in big, gold letters. Licensing your name is what every grifter dreams about.”

“The best thing you can say about libertarians is that because their views derive from abstract theory, they tend to be highly principled and rigorous in their logic.”

“Trade, tourism, cultural exchange, and participation in international institutions all serve to erode the legitimacy of repressive regimes.”

“Book collectors are thrill-seekers. It is a vegetarian hunt to be sure, without much exertion or risk, but the endorphin rush of the chase and the adrenaline high of the capture are much the same with first editions as I imagine they must be in the pursuit of 10-point stags, largemouth bass, or 20-foot waves at Maverick's.”

“You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change.”

“As far apart as they are theologically, Mormons and evangelical Christians may have more in common with each other anthropologically than they do with secular Americans watching 'Big Love' on HBO.”

“If you want to go around saying that giving women the vote wrecked the country and still be taken seriously, it helps to be handing out $100 bills.”

“If the creators of cartoons are intentionally or unintentionally giving children the idea that gay people are part of the big, happy human family, that's a good thing, not a bad one.”

“Of the alternatives we face in controlling long-term spending growth, moving Medicare to a voucher system seems only mildly unfortunate - and nothing as compared with a debt-driven economic crisis that could stem from inaction.”

“Objecting to someone because of his religious beliefs is not the same thing as prejudice based on religious heritage, race, or gender.”

“It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights.”

“The conservative position that all spending is evil obliterates any distinction between investment and consumption, between the long-term and the short-term.”

“I think 'Slate''s editorial staff understands the intersection of journalism and technology better than any other.”

“Many reporters have gone to Tea Party rallies looking for expressions of bigotry. What they have tended to find instead is a constitutional fundamentalism that argues that Washington has no right to tell individuals or states what to do.”

“Despite all the Internet has done to make prices transparent and bibliographic information universal, you can still find - at book sales and thrift shops, auctions and even fancy dealers - unrecognized or underpriced rarities. Getting something valuable for cheap is the basic, greedy thrill of book collecting.”

“Political analysts tend to overinterpret the results of isolated elections.”

“Obama is the rare Democrat who talks easily about faith and values and who does so without upsetting those offended by the mixture of religion and politics.”

“The cradle-to-grave welfare state diminishes individual initiative and can breed a pervasive sclerosis.”

“Book collecting is a largely solitary, mostly male, and completely absorbing activity.”

“The most important newspapers in this country need to exist. Our democracy needs them. Life as we know it would be unthinkable without them.”