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Famous George Will Quotes

“Forever seeking Archimedean levers for prying the world in directions they prefer, progressives say they embrace high-speed rail for many reasons—to improve the climate, increase competitiveness, enhance national security, reduce congestion, and rationalize land use. The length of the list of reasons, and the flimsiness of each, points to this conclusion: the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.”

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Author:George Will
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“Part of the beauty and much of the moral seriousness of sport derives from the severe justice of strenuous play in a circumscribed universe of rules that protect the integrity of competition. Records are worth recording, and worth striving to surpass, because they serve as benchmarks of excellence achieved under the pressure of competition.”

PlayUniverseSportsJusticeMoralRecordsIntegrityProtectPressureCompetitionExcellenceStriveSevereSeriousness
Book:With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002
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“The Framers of the First Amendment were not concerned with preventing government from abridging their freedom to speak about crops and cockfighting, or with protecting the expressive activity of topless dancers, which of late has found some shelter under the First Amendment. Rather, the Framers cherished unabridged freedom of political communication.”

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Book:With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002
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“The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration's central activity - the political allocation of wealth and opportunity - is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.”

PoliticalOpportunitySocialWealthJusticeResultsFailingEconomicProduceActivitySocial JusticeCorruptionPlanningSuperiorsAdministrationMeritAgendasManifestIncompetenceDependencySusceptibleMaximizingAllocationFavoritism
Author:George Will
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“Concerning [postmodern] ideas, let us not mince words. The ideas are profoundly dangerous. They subvert our civilization by denying that truth is found by conscientious attempts accurately to portray a reality that exists independently of our perception or attitudes or other attributes such as race, ethnicity, sex or class.”

IdeasRealityFoundSexRaceAttitudeClassDangerousCivilizationTruth IsPerceptionAttributesEthnicityPostmodernRace Ethnicity
Book:The Leveling Wind: Politics, the Culture, and Other News, 1990-1994
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“It is important that Miers not be confirmed unless, in her 61st year, she suddenly and unexpectedly is found to have hitherto undisclosed interests and talents pertinent to the court's role. Otherwise the sound principle of substantial deference to a president's choice of judicial nominees will dissolve into a rationalization for senatorial abdication of the duty to hold presidents to some standards of seriousness that will prevent them from reducing the Supreme Court to a private plaything useful for fulfilling whims on behalf of friends.”

YearsImportantChoicesFoundSoundPresidentInterestPrinciplesRolesTalentDutyStandardsCourtSupremeFulfillingSupreme CourtBehalfSeriousnessReducingJudicialWhimDeferencePertinentAbdication
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“America overflows with specious "victims" demanding redress for spurious grievances. However, one genuinely oppressed minority is getting overdue relief. Beginning with spring training in Arizona and Florida, Major League Baseball, taking pity on traumatized pitchers, is directing umpires to enforce the strike zone.”

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Author:George Will
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“An alloy of innocence and arrogance, young (Ted) Williams came to Boston when it had four morning and four evening local newspapers engaged in perpetual circulation wars. He became grist for their mills, and his wars with the sportswriters brought out the worst in him, and cost him. He won two Most Valuable Player Awards and finished second four times. Several of those times he would have won had he not had such poisonous relations with the voting press.”

TwoWarYoungMorningFourPlayerWorstCostRelationPressesValuableFinishedNewspapersLocalsEveningInnocenceEngagedArroganceVotingAwardsPerpetualBostonMillsCirculationPoisonous
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“(Barry) Bonds' records must remain part of baseball's history. His hits happened. Erase them and there will be discrepancies in baseball's bookkeeping about the records of the pitchers who gave them up. George Orwell said that in totalitarian societies, yesterday's weather could be changed by decree. Baseball, indeed America, is not like that. Besides, the people who care about the record book - serious fans - will know how to read it. That may be Bonds' biggest worry.”

PeopleKnowsMaySaidBookCareAmericaWorryKnow HowRecordsHappenedFansChangedSeriousBaseballYesterdayWeatherWho CaresPitcherEraseDecreeWell SaidDiscrepanciesBookkeeping
Author:George Will
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“In a nation committed to better living through chemistry - where Viagra-enabled men pursue silicone-contoured women - the national pastime has a problem of illicit chemical enhancement. Steroids threaten the health of the 5 percent to 7 percent of players proved, by a mild regime of scheduled tests, to be using them. Steroids also endanger emulative young people. Further, steroids subvert what baseball is selling - fair competition. And they strike at the pleasure of engagement with America's team sport with the longest history.”

PeopleMenProblemAmericaYoungNationsSportsPleasurePlayerTeamPercentFairsTestsBaseballCompetitionCommittedStrikesSellingPursueChemistryChemicalsEngagementRegimesPastimeSports TeamSteroidEnhancementViagra
Book:One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
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“Major League Baseball's labor negotiations involve two paradoxes. The players' union's primary objective is to protect the revenues of a very few very rich owners - principally, the Yankees'. The owners' primary objective is a more egalitarian distribution of wealth. The union believes that unconstrained spending by the richest three teams pulls up all payrolls. Most owners believe that baseball's problems--competitive imbalance, the parlous financial conditions of many clubs--result from large and growing disparities of what are mistakenly treated as 'local' revenues.”

BelieveTwoProblemThreeWealthResultsRichGrowingPlayerTeamConditionsProtectMajorsLaborBaseballUnionsFinancialClubsSpendingLocalsObjectivesTreatedPrimariesLeagueOwnersParadoxNegotiationDistributionRevenueYankeesImbalanceDisparityMajor LeaguePayrollPull UpsDistribution Of WealthMajor League Baseball
Author:George Will
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“(Pete) Rose's coming clean is the most soiled conversion of convenience since ... well, Aug. 17, 1998, when DNA evidence caused Bill Clinton to undergo a memory clarification. On the diamond, no one ever wrung more success from less natural talent than Rose did. But his second autobiography - which refutes the first - makes worse the mess he has made.”

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Author:George Will
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“Americans, more than most people, believe that history is the result of individual decisions to implement conscious intentions. For Americans, more than most people, history has been that.... This sense of openness, of possibility and autonomy, has been a national asset as precious as the topsoil of the Middle West. But like topsoil, it is subject to erosion; it requires tending. And it is not bad for Americans to come to terms with the fact that for them too, history is a story of inertia and the unforeseen.”

PeopleBelieveHas BeensFactsStoriesIndividualTermDecisionResultsHistoryMiddleSubjectsPossibilityConsciousIntentionWestAssetsOpennessAutonomyInertiaErosionUnforeseenTopsoil
Author:George Will
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