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George Will Quotes

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Famous George Will Quotes

“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.”

FirstsGovernmentPoliticalFoundSpeakCommunicationActivitySpeechLateConcernedDancerAmendmentsShelterFreedom Of SpeechCropsFirst AmendmentPreventingExpressiveFramers
Book:With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002
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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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“Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character.”

ShouldFirstsBelieveTwoCharacterGovernmentIndividualBeliefNationsDoubtCenturyCapacityThirdsFunctionFinalsBe GoodLiberalismDeclinePrincipalRestraintPreservationRemovalAscent
Author:George Will
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“With a chip on his shoulder larger than his margin of victory, Barack Obama is approaching his second term by replicating the mistake of his first. Then his overreaching involved health care - expanding the entitlement state at the expense of economic growth. Now he seeks another surge of statism, enlarging the portion of gross domestic product grasped by government and dispensed by politics. The occasion is the misnamed "fiscal cliff," the proper name for which is: the Democratic Party's agenda.”

FirstsStatesGovernmentCareNamesGrowthTermPartyMistakeEconomicProductsVictoryInvolvedDemocraticShouldersOccasionsBarackHealth CareAgendasExpensesPortionsGrossChipsExpandingCliffsDemocratic PartyEconomic GrowthMarginsEntitlementGross Domestic ProductOverreachingFiscal Cliff
Author:George Will
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“America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government's refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists 'comprehensive' immigration reform.”

FirstsGovernmentAmericaNationsMilesImmigrationReformDevelopingBordersImmigrantsIllegalRefusalComprehensiveArizonaImmigration ReformInsistingIllegal ImmigrantsFirst Things FirstDeveloped Nations
Author:George Will
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“I just got hooked on the radio, the voice of it all. It was my connection to metropolitan America, if you will. Sports, in particularly baseball then 'cause of its rich sediment of numbers, was one of the first things a young person could peg up with adults on - that is, you could know as much about Jimmy Fox as your father did.”

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Author:George Will
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