Sublime

Commerce had flourished under Washington’s aegis, and he offered an optimistic assessment of the country. At the beginning of his talk, he pointed to the appreciation of American debt as a direct consequence of Hamilton’s program: “The progress of public credit is witnessed by a considerable rise of American stock abroad as well as at home.”24 Gove

The very symbol and heart of that sovereignty was, to Lodge, the Senate’s power over treaties. “War can be declared without the assent of the Executive, and peace can be made without the assent of the House,” he had once pointed out. “But neither war nor peace can be made without the assent of the Senate.”

Pour entrer dans le XXIe siècle, l’État doit redevenir humble, ouvert, flexible, humaniste, réduit à ses fonctions régaliennes et géostratégiques. Un État-coach, qui inspire et encadre l’innovation. Un État-manageur moderne, qui accompagne la vie économique, sans prétendre à la régenter.

The essay On the Constancy of the Wise Man deals with a comparable subject and is addressed to another great friend of Seneca’s, Serenus Annaeus (possibly a relative, who later became a powerful man in Rome—probably thanks to Seneca’s intervention). The name “Serenus” means “Calm,”

Lyndon was the guy to see if you wanted to get a bill off the Calendar, Lyndon was the guy to see if you were having trouble getting it passed in the House, Lyndon was the guy to see for campaign funds. There wasn’t anything Lyndon was using these facts for as yet. But in ways not yet visible, power was starting to accumulate around him—ready to be

The Stoics identified the four virtues: courage, wisdom, justice, and temperance.

It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society. The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds. The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant.

The son of the man who had said, “You can always be honorable,” had what a friend calls “a monumental sense of honor,” and it merged with his monumental patriotism. He regarded his responsibility for America’s fighting men as a sacred trust. Once, after his Armed Services Committee had held a closed hearing on confidential military information, com