Isaiah Berlin:

If these ultimate human values by which we live are to be pursued, then compromises, trade-offs, arrangements have to be made if the worst is not to happen.

You must believe me, one cannot have everything one wants -- not only in practice, but even in theory. The denial of this, the search for a single, overarching ideal because it is the one and only true one for humanity, invariably leads to coercion. And then to destruction, blood -- eggs are broken, but the omelette is not in sight, there is only an infinite number of eggs, human lives, ready for the breaking. And in the end the passionate idealists forget the omelette, and just go on breaking eggs.

Joshua Green on President Obama:

The crisis required more of him than he seemed to recognize. But he was hampered by the same things that have plagued him all along: a liberal technocrat's excess of faith in government's ability to solve problems and an unwillingness or inability to demonstrate the forcefulness Americans expect of their president in an emergency.

Frank Chimero:

Continually attempting to manage too much isn't the mark of grace, it's the sign of a dumbass.

Steve Jobs:

How many things have you said no to?