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Utah Phillips

Utah Phillips Quotes

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Famous Utah Phillips Quotes

“When I went to high school - that's about as far as I got - reading my U.S. history textbook, well, I got the history of the ruling class. I got the history of the generals and the industrialists and the presidents that didn't get caught. How 'bout you? I got all of the history of the people who owned the wealth of the country, but none of the history of the people that created it.”

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“My pacifism came after I joined the army and was shipped over to Korea. There was a little one-room orphanage there called Song-do. There were 180 babies in there, and they were GI babies. The U.S. government would not acknowledge this, and the Korean government had nothing to do with them. They were living on a 100-pound bag of rice a month. Some of those kids, when they were old enough, would go out and shine shoes. They would show up at the gate of our compound to shine shoes, and you'd swear they were looking for their fathers.”

LittlesEnoughShowsGovernmentKidsSongFatherRoomsBabyMonthsArmyShiningShoesAcknowledgeBagsPoundsGatesSwearKoreaRiceLiving OnKoreanCompoundsPacifismOrphanageGis
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“Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as you’re standing in it. My elders are the tributaries, and everything they thought and every struggle they went through and everything they gave their lives to, and every song they created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me – and if I take the time to ask, and if I take the time to see, and if I take the time to reach out, I can build that bridge between my world and theirs. I can reach down into that river and take out what I need to get through this world”

IfsWorldNeedsLongI CanSongAsksStruggleThis WorldStandingFlowRiversEnormousBridgesReach OutElders
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“Kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.”

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“I said, "OK, Ammon [Hennacy], I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed."”

WorldWantGivingHardEconomicGiving UpWeaponsGunAngryLaysPrivilegeClubsTeethKnivesArsenalPacifistAngry Words
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“You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!”

InspirationalSoulStatesAmericaNatureNaturalPathClearCuttingHuman NatureMinesResourcesRiversSakeProfitFollowingValuableSingersForestsResistanceYour SoulUsaMore TimeNatural ResourcesCrookedPath Of Least Resistance
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“I guarantee, that if I am elected, I will take over the White House, hang out, shoot pool, scratch my ass, and not do a damn thing . . . Which is to say, if you want something done, don't come to me to do it for you; you got to get together and figure out how to do it yourselves. Is that a deal?”

IfsWantDoneTogetherHouseWhiteDealsFiguresAssDamnGuaranteesHanging OutWhite HousePoolScratchesWant SomethingGet TogetherGuarantees ThatDamn Things
Author:Utah Phillips
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