American Life Quotes - Page 6

• Today's secular libertarians, who want to remove biblical religion from public life, have trouble making sense of the civil rights movement because it was so clearly a religiously inspired movement that entered the public arena and made a major difference in American life.

  Bruce L. Shelley

  Christian, Religious, Biblical

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• Commercialism is the blemish on the fair face of American life. Fighting against the terrible conditions of the explorer and pioneer, our forefathers had little time to think of beauty. Hearts and heads became as hardened to the more gracious things of life as did their bodies against physical hardship. Little by little, as nature yielded before the dynamite of their wills, life began to express itself in the same hard terms, and the great commerce of a New World bent everything to its indomitable will.

  Alice Foote MacDougall

  Business, Heart, Fighting

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• Our presence in Afghanistan is not worth the price of any more American lives or treasure.

  Camille Paglia

  Treasure, Afghanistan, Afghan

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• To the European immigrant - that is, to the aliens who have been converted into Americans by the advantages of American life - the Promise of America has consisted largely in the opportunity which it offered of economic independence and prosperity.

  Herbert Croly

  Opportunity, America, Independence

  Herbert Croly (2005). “The Promise of American Life”, p.9, Cosimo, Inc.

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• No sovereign, no court, no personal loyalty, no aristocracy, no church, no clergy, no army, no diplomatic service, no country gentlemen, no palaces, no castles, nor manors, nor old country-houses, nor parsonages, nor thatched cottages nor ivied ruins no cathedrals, nor abbeys, nor little Norman churches no great Universities nor public schools -- no Oxford, nor Eton, nor Harrow no literature, no novels, no museums, no pictures, no political society, no sporting class -- no Epsom nor Ascot Some such list as that might be drawn up of the absent things in American life.

  Henry James

  Loyalty, Country, School

  'Hawthorne' (1879)

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• This very individualistic form of Protestant Christianity that became so basic in English and then American life is to a large degree responsible for the historical success of Britain and America.

  Walter Russell Mead

  Britain And America, Historical, Degrees

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• . . . what happened, of course, was that I was writing a play set in the 1940's that was supposed to be somehow representative of black American life, and I didn't have any women in there. And I knew that wasn't going to work.

  August Wilson

  Writing, Play, Black

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• My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Goal, Different, Film

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• There is a rowdy strain in American life, living close to the surface but running very deep. Like an ape behind a mask, it can display itself suddenly with terrifying effect.

  Bruce Catton

  Running, Rowdy, Apes

  Bruce Catton (2011). “This Hallowed Ground: A History of the Civil War”, p.3, Vintage

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• If you are black, the only roads into the mainland of American life are through subservience, cowardice, and loss of manhood. These are the white man's roads.

  Amiri Baraka

  Loss, Men, White Man

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• Although the Jeffersonian Law ("All men are created equal") is the first article of the American faith, the facts of American life have demonstrated for some time now that it is an irksome faith to live by.

  Alistair Cooke

  Equality, Men, Law

  Alistair Cooke (2014). “America Observed: From the 1940s to the 1980s”, p.141, Open Road Media

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• The death of JFK to the resignation of Richard Nixon marked a great turning point in American life.

  Pierre Salinger

  Resignation, Turning Points

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• My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.

  Douglas Sirk

  Average, Ideas, People

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• Should I become President...I will not risk American lives...by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Commitment, Risk

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• But the thing we do know is whatever it costs to save and protect American lives in this conflict, we're going to spend.

  Saxby Chambliss

  Cost, Conflict, Protect

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• In short, is American life of the future to be characterized by freedom or by servitude, strength or weakness? The answer must be clear and unequivocal if we are to avoid the pitfalls toward which we are now heading with such certainty. In many respects it is not to be found in any dogma of political philosophy but in those immutable precepts which underlie the Ten Commandments.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Philosophy, Voting, Political

  Douglas MacArthur, Edward T. Imparato (2001). “General MacArthur: Wisdom and Visions”, p.130, Turner Publishing Company

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• A serious problem in America is the gap between academe and the mass media, which is our culture. Professors of humanities, with all their leftist fantasies, have little direct knowledge of American life and no impact whatever on public policy.

  Camille Paglia

  Media, America, Impact

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays”, p.9, Vintage

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• One of the most constant aspects of American life is change - and nowhere is it more evident than in our financial markets.

  Henry Paulson

  Financial, Life Is, Aspect

  Henry Paulson's Speech on the "Blueprint for Regulatory Reform", www.cnbc.com. March 31, 2008.

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• If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.

  Richard Russo

  Class, Theme, Endure

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• It seems to be a law in American life that whatever enriches us anywhere except in the wallet inevitably becomes uneconomic.

  Russell Baker

  Law, Wallets, Seems

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• That's one of the things about the Tea Party people. They think corporations have too much influence in American life and they do.

  Howard Dean

  Party, Thinking, People

  "Liz Cheney Exposes Howard Dean In Lie About His Connection To George Soros and MoveOn.org". "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer, www.newsbusters.org. October 17, 2010.

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• Over-reliance on strictly economic justifications has already begun to hurt the quality and range of education at every level of American life.

  Charles M. Vest

  Education, Hurt, Quality

  "An Interview with MIT President Charles M. Vest". news.mit.edu. December 10, 1997.

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• The moral and social aspiration proper to American life is, of course, the aspiration vaguely described by the word democratic; and the actual achievement of the American nation points towards an adequate and fruitful definition of the democratic ideal.

  Herbert Croly

  Swag, Democratic Ideals, Achievement

  Herbert Croly (2005). “The Promise of American Life”, p.17, Cosimo, Inc.

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• As long as we rationalize nuclear weapons as "necessary" in order to save American lives, then nuclear weapons will never be gotten rid of.

  Bernard Lown

  Order, Long, Nuclear

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• Our families and our homes are the center of American life, Everything we do is to make those homes-and the lives in them-more beautiful, more comfortable, more functional and more full of life and light and joy for those we love.

  Martha Stewart

  Beautiful, Dream, Home

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