Let there be bass.

If something is easy to repair, it is easy to construct.

The design of each element should be thought out in order to be easy to make and easy to repair.

I wonder if I could make an electric bass.

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half.

Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation.

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.

If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate.

Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.

Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.

A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect.

Little opportunities should be improved.

In the first 50 years of the filibuster, it was used only 35 times. But the last Congress alone had 112 cloture motions filed, plus threats of more. This is the tyranny of the minority.

A basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency.

President Barack Obama has it right - there is a lot to change about Washington. The problem is, not much will get changed unless we confront the runaway filibuster in the U.S. Senate.