Stephen L. Carter Quotes

• Rumor is rarely more interesting than fact, but it is always more readily available.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Interesting, Rumor, Facts

  Stephen L. Carter (2002). “The Emperor of Ocean Park”, Knopf

  45 Copy quote

• We live today in a world in which nobody believes choices should have consequences. But may I tell you the great secret that our culture seeks to deny? You cannot escape the consequences of your choices. Time runs in only one direction.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Running, Time, Believe

  Stephen L. Carter (2002). “The Emperor of Ocean Park”, Knopf

  12 Copy quote

• True love is not the helpless desire to possess the cherished object of one's fervent affection; true love is the disciplined generosity we require of ourselves for the sake of another when we would rather be selfish; that, at least, is how I have taught myself to love my wife.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Selfish, Love Is, Generosity

  Stephen L. Carter (2002). “The Emperor of Ocean Park”, Knopf

  16 Copy quote

• One sees a trend in our political and legal cultures toward treating religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies that there is something wrong with religious devotion.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Political

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  8 Copy quote

• In our sensible zeal to keep religion from dominating our politics, we have created a political and legal culture that presses the religiously faithful to be other than themselves, to act publicly, and sometimes privately as well, as though their faith does not matter to them.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Political

  8 Copy quote

• When you shoot someone who is fleeing, it's not self-defense. It's an execution.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Self, Fleeing, Defense

  8 Copy quote

• We often ask our citizens to split their public and private selves, telling them in effect that it is fine to be religious in private, but there is something askew when those private beliefs become the basis for public action.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Self

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  8 Copy quote

• To be black and an intellectual in America is to live in a box. On the box is a label, not of my own choosing.

  Stephen L. Carter

  America, Black, Intellectual

  Stephen L. Carter (1991). “Reflections of an affirmative action baby”, Basic Books

  9 Copy quote

• Rumors chase the dead like flies, and we follow them with our prim noses. None of us are gossips, but we love listening to those who are.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Gossip, Listening, Rumor

  Stephen L. Carter (2007). “New England White”, Knopf

  4 Copy quote

• You should never fall in love with your own press clippings, because it is very much the nature of the beast that the same journalists who build you up between Monday and Friday tear you down for weekend fun...My family's habit of living in the past seems to me pathological, even dangerous. If all greatness lies in the past, what is the point of the future?

  Stephen L. Carter

  Friday, Falling In Love, Monday

  "The Emperor of Ocean Park". Book by Stephen L. Carter, 2002.

  9 Copy quote

• There is much depressing evidence that the religious voice is required to stay out of the public square only when it is pressed in a conservative cause.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Depressing

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

• If people believe that they are marrying out of love and free choice rather than out of duty, they are more likely to decide, if love should die, that the free choice to join together is no more significant than the free choice to part, and to look for love elsewhere; those married out of duty expect less love to begin with, and what duty has brought together, duty may keep together.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Believe, People, Choices

  7 Copy quote

• Even in 2012, if there's a black character in the movies or on television that's a professional, if we even hear about their backgrounds they're always 'up from the streets.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Character, Black, Television

  4 Copy quote

• The very aspect of religions that many of their critics most fear - that the religiously devout, in the name of their faith, take positions that differ from approved state policy - is one of their strengths.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Names

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

• Lots of white people think black people are stupid. They are stupid themselves for thinking so, but regulation will not make them smarter.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Stupid, Thinking, White

  Stephen L. Carter (1991). “Reflections of an affirmative action baby”, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

• Every conflict plagues the peace that follows it.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Conflict, Plague

  Stephen L. Carter (2012). “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln”, p.45, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Teasing out the way the world might look through another's eyes is what makes the creative process so fascinating and enjoyable.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Writing, Eye, Creative

  7 Copy quote

• Richard John Neuhaus, in his well-known book The Naked Public Square, tells us that in America, the public square has become openly hostile to religion.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Book

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  5 Copy quote

• Love is a gift we deliver when we would rather not.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Love Is

  Stephen L. Carter (2002). “The Emperor of Ocean Park”, Knopf

  4 Copy quote

• I think of my novels as entertainments.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Thinking, Entertainment, Novel

  4 Copy quote

• We do not credit to the ideal of religious freedom when we talk as though religious belief is something of which public-spirited adults should be ashamed.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Adults

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  5 Copy quote

• I think that black fiction authors have to work very hard to avoid being typed as seeking only a black audience.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Thinking, Black, Fiction

  4 Copy quote

• If you're fascinated by America, you'll be fascinated by family.

  Stephen L. Carter

  America, Fascinated, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• In contemporary American culture, the religions are more and more treated as just passing beliefs - almost as fads - rather than as the fundaments upon which the devout build their lives.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Religious, Fads

  Stephen L. Carter (1993). “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion”, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

• This trivializing rhetoric runs the subtle but unmistakable message: pray if you like, worship if you must, but whatever you do, do not on any account take your religion seriously.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Christian, Running, Religious

  4 Copy quote

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