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Lewis H. Lapham

Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

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Famous Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

“Further strengthenings of the self-centered instinct for survival recruit even greater numbers of people into some sort of ring of fellowship (church or gender, red state or blue) by populating the terra incognita outside the ring with enough barbarians to verify the existence of a civilization within--to define the preferred stock by what, as all good people agree, it decidedly is not.”

PeopleSelfStatesEnoughChurchNumbersExistenceGreaterCivilizationSurvivalRedAgreeBlueInstinctGenderRingsGood PeopleFellowshipSelf CenteredBarbariansStrengtheningRecruitVerifyPreferred Stock
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Let the rabbit of free enterprise out of its velveteen bag and too many people would have to be fired, too much idiocy exposed to the light of judgment or ridicule, too much vanity sacrificed to the fires of efficiency. Such a catastrophe obviously would threaten the American way of life, to say nothing of the belief in free markets.”

PeopleWayLightBeliefFireToo MuchJudgmentVanityEnterpriseBagsExposedEfficiencyCatastropheRidiculeFree MarketRabbitsFree EnterpriseIdiocyAmerican Way Of Life
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
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“What joins the Americans one to another is not a common ancestry, language or race, but a shared work of the imagination that looks forward to the making of a future, not backward to the insignia of the past. Their enterprise is underwritten by a Constitution that allows for the widest horizons of sight and the broadest range of expression, supports the liberties of the people as opposed to the ambitions of the state, and stands as premise for a narrative rather than plan for an invasion or a monument. The narrative was always plural; not one story, many stories.”

PeopleLooksStatesStoriesAmericaPastLanguageImaginationCommonRaceLibertySupportPlansExpressionAmbitionSightConstitutionNarrativeRangeEnterpriseHorizonMonumentInvasionPremisesAncestry
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“About the presence of death and dying I don't remember the society in the 1950s being so skittish as it has since become. People still died at home, among relatives and friends, often in the care of a family physician. Death was still to be seen sitting in the parlor, hanging in a butcher shop, sometimes lying in the street.”

PeopleStillsSometimesHomeCareRememberDeathLyingStreetsDyingSittingDiedShopsDeath And DyingPhysiciansButchersParlorRelatives And Friends
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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