“The accounts that history presents have to be paid. Past has to be reconciled with present in the life of a nation. History is an insistent force: the past is what put us where we are. the past cannot be put behind until it is settled with.” PastForceNationsBehindsAccountsPaid Author:William Pfaff
“America's problem is how to free itself from the grip of it's exhausted ideas.” IdeasProblemAmericaExhausted Author:William Pfaff
“For four hundred years European civilization has dominated the world - for better or for worse. It is convenient, and flattering, for Americans to assume that this is all over; but it very rash to do so.” WorldYearsFourCivilizationHundredAssumingConvenientFlattering Author:William Pfaff
“Europeans believe in democracy - or, at least, in republican government - but they have considered the alternatives, and continue to do so, and that scandalizes Americans.” BelieveGovernmentDemocracyRepublicanAlternativesRepublican Government Author:William Pfaff
“We Americans really seem to be the only truly non-socialist economy on earth.” SeemsEarthEconomySocialistSocialist Economy Author:William Pfaff
“The problems of elites is an old one for which Americans have found no solid answer.” ProblemFoundAnswersElites Author:William Pfaff
“The moral spectacle of capitalism still offends, as does American capitalism's implacable insistence that the market determine value even in the political, intellectual, and artistic spheres.” DoeStillsPoliticalValuesMoralIntellectualCapitalismDetermineArtisticSpheresInsistenceAmerican Capitalism Author:William Pfaff
“But Americans are different from everyone else in the world - except the Canadians, and Americans are more different from the Canadians than they often think.” ThinkingWorldDifferent Author:William Pfaff
“The center holds; passion falls away. That is what happened ideologically in Western Europe over recent years.” YearsFallPassionHappenedEuropeWesternWestern Europe Author:William Pfaff