Odds & Ends
Things We Should’ve Said

After the railroad left, we waited a long time. Now, we've finally learned how to make money out of rocks and wind.

—Duane Kolman

Harlowton City Councilman

...our politics are cyclical; each party stays in power until it has screwed up so much that even the most patient of voters can't wait to send the rascals back where they came from....That is how badly the Republicans have screwed up, and that's where they're going this year, back home for a while.

—Richard Reeves

The correlation between prison inmates and broken homes, or homes never created, is absolute. What armies of social scientists with six-figure salaries today tell us, 12-year-olds knew 50 years ago.

—Patrick Buchanan

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun. 

—Ralph Nader

Einstein believed that there is some kind of intelligence working its way through nature.

—John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion, Oxford University

You can observe a lot just by watching.

—Yogi Berra

You are always immortal. If you watch and meditate daily and sincerely, then you will perceive immortality constantly.

—Paramahamsa Prajnananda

I've seen many, many kids' lives negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana. It's somewhat Russian roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological, biological. You can't predict the experimentation and how it will impact a kid.

—Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar,

director of adolescent services,

Phoenix House treatment centers

The best way to address the challenge Iraq poses is through a government in Baghdad—a new government—that is committed to represent and respect its people, not repress them; that is committed to peace in the region.…  The future of Iraq will affect the way in which the Middle East and the Arab world in particular evolve in the next decade and beyond.

—Sandy Berger, Clinton national

security adviser, 2000

Mrs. Clinton is transmitting, but people aren't receiving. She has been branded, tagged. She's been absorbed, understood and categorized. People have decided what they think, and it's not good. It took George W. Bush five years to get to that point. It took her five intense months.

—Peggy Noonan, WSJ

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. 

—Aldo Leopold