He knew from experience how a turn of the kaleidoscope could either open an opportunity or block a future path, brighten prospects or darken the road ahead.

“Sometimes, symbolic gestures are the language of political actions.”

Unlike the candidate’s aides, who had reached the point of near total exhaustion, Kennedy understood the importance of pacing himself, of relaxing and replenishing his energy.

All that Dick remembered of that initial call was the formula that Sorensen succinctly conveyed to him for a Kennedy speech. It was to be made of three “interchangeable parts” that could be snapped together as needed, like some version of Legos: first a tribute to the grandeur of the Democratic Party; second, a brief exploration of the “soup du

How many of you, who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part

I do not know if my customary last minute sprint will suffice.

And yet, through the nostalgia seeped the sorrows of opportunities not explored, chances not taken, possibilities wasted. It all might have been different.

The end of our country has loomed many times before. America is not as fragile as it seems.”

“I remember his intensity,” Judy recalled. “The way he listened.”