One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
George will
Top 10 Best Quotes
“The almost-always-ghastly exclamation point has been lately compared to canned laughter.”
“National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds.”
“Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, "What you are doing is none of my business" and "What I am doing is none of your business.”
“Because of demagogues, rhetoric has a tainted reputation in our time. However, rhetoric is central to democratic governance. It can fuse passion and persuasion, moving free people to freely choose what is noble.”
“The most capricious modern entitlement is not just Social Security but to self-esteem.”
“Matthew Arnold was a fastidious social critic and hence an accomplished complainer. When he died, an acquaintance said: "Poor Matt, he's going to Heaven, no doubt – but he won't like God.”
“Institutions are lengthening shadows of strong individuals.”
“In this snug, over-safe corner of the world… we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous, untamed and streaming world.”
“Gifted teachers master the patience required for the unending business of transmitting civilization down the generations, transforming biological facts – children – into social artifacts called citizens. It is wearying work and it is a wonder teachers can summon the stamina for it.”
“The columnist gives these words to the longings of an 11-year-old he meets with Tourette's syndrome: "Wisdom is encoded in our common language. We all have, to some extent, a complex, sometimes adversarial, relationship with our physical selves. And I more than most people know that it is correct to say,'I have a body.' There is my body, and then there is ME, trying to make it behave.”
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Book Keywords:
education, security, pessimism, rhetoric, graciousness, writing, personality, intelligence, leadership, conformity, punctuation, public-speaking, teaching, policy, independence, community, motivation, criticism, self-centeredness, complaining, disability, fallen-world, narcissism, culture, identity, complacency, self-esteem
