We should have heard:

"After himself, the members of his own family, those who usually live in the same house with him, his parents, his children, his brothers and sisters, are naturally the objects of his warmest affections. They are naturally and usually the persons upon whose happiness or misery his conduct must have the greatest influence. He is more habituated to sympathize with them. He knows better how every thing is likely to affect them, and his sympathy with them is more precise and determinate, than it can be with the greater part of other people. It approaches nearer, in short, to what he feels for himself."

-- Adam Smith, from "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"

When it came out like:

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

-- Bush in LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

We should have heard:

"We see that all men mean by justice that kind of state of character which makes people disposed to do what is just and makes them act justly and wish for what is just; and similarly by injustice that state which makes them act unjustly and wish for what is unjust."

-- Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics," Book V

When instead we heard:

"If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything!"

-- Bush, Bellevue Community College, Nov. 2, 2000

We should have heard:

The greatest necessity appears to be that of honor; next is that of security; and third and least weighty is that of convenience, which can never contend with the other two. But it is often necessary to compare these with each other so that, though honor is more excellent than security, nevertheless we may deliberate which is the more advisable.

-- Cicero, "The Genres of Rhetoric"

When it came out like:

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."

-- Bush, July 22, 2001

We should have heard:

THOUGH the torrents from their fountains
Roar down many a craggy steep,
Yet they find among the mountains
Resting-places calm and deep.

-- William Wordsworth, from "Song for the Wandering Jew"

When it came out instead like:

"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah."

-- Bush, White House Menorah lighting ceremony, Dec. 10, 2001

We should have heard:

NATURE is what we see,
The Hill, the Afternoon-Squirrel,
Eclipse, the Bumble-bee,
Nay -- Nature is Heaven.

-- Emily Dickinson

When it sounded like:

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

-- Bush, Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

We should have heard:

"They [journalists] certainly are not great writers, but they speak their country's language and they make themselves heard."

-- Tocqueville, from "Democracy in America"

When instead what came out was:

"There's Adam Clymer -- major league asshole -- from the New York Times."

-- Bush, August 2000

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