"We have to fight the dangerous streams in culture, the consumerism and narcissism and me-ism that erode the borders of our moral culture."

"We can’t put shallow celebrity before core decency. We have to have a deeper faith in the human spirit. As they say, he who has the heart to help has the right to complain."

Said Cory Booker, interviewed by Maureen Dowd (because her column today is about the decline of character and because Booker once ran into a burning house to save a neighbor).