Matthew Oettinger

“strategy can never be divorced from the costs of implementing it.”
― Gideon Rose, A New Cold War?: Russia and America, Then and Now

“it must seem odd that Christian nationalists loudly reject “government” as a matter of principle even as they seek government power to impose their religious vision on the rest of society. America’s slaveholders, too, revealed a similar inconsistency when they championed “states’ rights” and at the same time demanded the assistance of the federal government in catching runaway slaves and defending the slave system.”
― Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

“this injunction of TR’s remains resonant: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
― Jon Meacham, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

“the mind of the child is like soft wax, which will take the least stamp you put on it, so let it be your care, who teach, to make the stamp good, that the wax be not hurt.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815