"The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all."

“I’m very curious to know what the hell they’re saying on the phone, but I’d be more worried if they weren’t talking.”

“Brewster's Legacy: God, Country and Yale" by Sarah Raymond in the Yale Herald”

“While the spoken word can travel faster, you can’t take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader.”

“None of these strictures, however, should inhibit any one of us, in his individual capacity, from declaring himself on the issues of the trial and its fairness … So in spite of my insistence on the limits of my official capacity, I personally want to say that I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States. In large part this atmosphere has been created by police actions and prosecutions against the Panthers in many parts of the country. It is also one more inheritance from centuries of racial discrimination and oppression…. The first contribution to the fairness of the trial which anyone can make is to cool rather than heat up the atmosphere in which the trial will be held.”

“It is satisfying for the descendant of a dissident refugee from Elizabeth I to present his credentials to Elizabeth II.”

“Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.”