"During the Cold War, we gathered information by listening to the Soviets, taking pictures of the Soviets, and we allowed our human intelligence to decline."

"A significant number of pages and sentences that the administration wants to keep in a classified status have already been released publicly, some of it by public statements of the leadership of the CIA and the FBI."

"Today 80 percent of all the oil that comes out of the Gulf is from 1,000 feet or more and today almost a third of it is more than 5,000 feet below the surface. What hasn't happened is the safety and the ability to respond to a negative event such as this blowout, has been far outrun by the technology of drilling itself. We need to close that gap."

"We ought to recognize that we have an offensive responsibility to take the war to the terrorists where they are. That responsibility has waned in the last year as military and intelligence resources were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Pakistan to be used in Iraq."

"Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless."

"As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar it will cease to be popular."

"Politics and war are remarkably similar situations."

"Politics is a field where the choice lies constantly between two blunders."