Mark Twain lived here for years as a journalist before his literary career took off. He had many thoughts, here is one that still resonates:

"Washington is no doubt the boss town in the country for a man to live in who wants to get all the pleasure he can in a given number of months. But I wasn't built that way. I don't want the earth at one gulp. All of us are always losing some pleasure that we might have if we could be everywhere at once. I lose Washington, for instance, for the privilege of saving my life. My doctor told me that if I wanted my three score and 10, I must go to bed early, keep out of social excitements, and behave myself. You can't do that in Washington. Nobody does."
- quoted in interview in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1889