* “The only clue to what man can do is what man has done.”—British philosopher R.G. Collingood.
* “Now is not the time for making new enemies.”—Voltaire, on his death bed, in response to a priest asking him to renounce Satan.
* “Colleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations.”—Mike Walz, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., addressing the Security Council on how to handle Iran in its bloody crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.
* “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force. … The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. … Trying to reach a (Ukraine-Russia) peace agreement without including Europe in the discussions is not realistic. The war is in Europe.”—Pope Leo XIV.
* “Depending on the document or day of the week, Trumpism can sound like Nixonian realism, pre-World War II isolationism or just swaggering mercantile imperialism.”—Ross Douthat, NYT.
* “Mr. Trump … has made clear that the bipartisan post-Cold War consensus—by which the United States oversaw an economically integrated world order governed by common laws regulating property relations, trade and conflict—has outlived its usefulness. In its place, the White House offers a vision of the world carved up into garrisoned spheres of competing influence.”—Author and Yale history professor Greg Grandin.
* “If you’re focused on America and America First, you start with your own hemisphere.”—Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
* “The uplifting truth is that the solution to identity politics needn’t be one camp defeating the other, but instead achieving together a national escape velocity to more promising terrain.”—Vivek Ramaswamy, GOP presidential candidate in 2024, who is running for governor of Ohio this year.
* “This is Trump’s ship, and they have retired to their quarters hoping that their morally depraved captain has some kind of plan for the ankle-deep water sloshing around their feet other than letting them drown.”—David Faris, The Nation, in noting the meekness of Congressional Republicans as the president’s popularity tanks and a mid-term rebuke could loom.
* “The overarching economic issue animating public debate is affordability, and its most immediate focal point is the expiration of expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies.”—Jason Furman, former White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman from 2013-17.
* “When you and I were growing up, our parents didn’t use a drug; they used a belt and whipped our butt, you know, and told us to sit down.”—Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, at RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing, talking about treatment for attention deficit disorder in children.
* “I think Florida may not be perceived as conservative as places like Alabama and Texas, but once Florida does things, they ripple.”—Legal Defense Fund attorney Antonio Ingram, on the Sunshine State’s impact in reshaping higher education.
* “I got to see my dreams come true. … I don’t know what I’m going to be doing tomorrow. Whatever comes, I’ll give it my best.”—Dolly Parton, on turning 80.
* “They couldn’t be warmer to us.”—Rays CEO Ken Babby, after meeting with Hal Steinbrenner, chairman and general partner of the Yankees, whose spring training and minor league facility is adjacent to the Hillsborough College site being targeted by the Rays in its new stadium-site search.
* “There is a meanness in this world, and we are defining our country in that meanness.”—Tampa City Council member Luis Viera.