Quotes from David Frum

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting," wrote the Czech novelist Milan Kundera.

Because there really are only two choices. We win and they lose – or else, they win and we lose." "There's a third possibility." "What?" he demanded aggressively. "We all lose.

Have you ever known anyone swindled by a scam? It's remarkable how determined they remain, and for how long, to defend the swindler—and to shift blame to those who tried to warn them of the swindle. The pain of being seen as a fool hurts more than the loss of money; it's more important to protect the ego against indignity than to visit justice upon the perpetrator. We human beings so often prefer a lie that affirms us to a truth that challenges us.

How do we arrive at a regime that is more sustainable? How do we avoid protectionism that will impoverish us all, hurting the poorest most? The United States needs to balance its budgets. China needs to open its markets. Everybody needs to emit less. And the lever to do all those things is a carbon tax that will make all fossil fuels—and therefore also all plastics—significantly more expensive than they are today.

If right and left are competing to be the biggest victim, who is competing to be the government?

Think tanks do have points of view, and they are absolutely entitled to defend them.

My mom was truly an iconic figure, a great journalist and a pioneering woman who died at 54 of cancer without ever having revealed to viewers that she was ill.

Maybe it's true that people with less extreme views who are also interested in public affairs have been driven out by a marketplace that doesn't offer them anything of the tone they want to listen to.