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Quote by Robert Hass

“I was aware that a quarter of the children in the country are born in poverty, and that the condition of public schools in California was disastrous.”

Quote by Robert Hass

Author

Robert Hass is an American poet known for his concise and profound poetry style. His works explore themes of nature, history, and the human condition, and have won numerous literary awards. more

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“I thought it was irrelevant to talk about what a wonderful thing poetry was if you didn't teach people to read.”

People Ifs Teach Wonderful Irrelevant Wonderful Things

Author:Robert Hass

“You begin to see that all of these things are connected: The kind of cuts that mean less environmental protection are also the kind of cuts that mean less musical education for the schools and that also mean more overcrowded schools.”

Kind Mean School Cutting Environmental Musical Connected Protection Environmental Protection Musical Education

Author:Robert Hass

“For relaxation, I like to figure skate. Being on the ice and spinning and jumping, I feel very close to nature. In particular, I feel very close to Newton's laws of motion. On the ice, you can experience Newton's laws of motion in their purest, most elegant form.”

Feels Form Law Figures Particular Ice Relaxation Elegant Jumping Spinning Newton Skates Laws Of Motion Newton's Laws

Author:Michio Kaku

“They are the kinds of things that make us a community: attachment to place, attachment to local arts traditions, the ability to read literature, the ability to look at paintings, the sense of connectedness to the land, the sense of community that comes from people taking care of their own.”

People Looks Kind Art Care Literature Community Ability Land Painting Tradition Locals Attachment Connectedness

Author:Robert Hass

“The market doesn't make communities. Markets make networks of self-interested individuals, and they work as long as there's more than enough to go around.”

Long Self Enough Individual Community

Author:Robert Hass

“As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature. Then what I decided is I am a spokesman for this other imagination of community - not the one showing up in the market. Nobody was tending to the way we're imaginatively connected to each other.”

Way Literature Community Imagination Poet Decided Connected Showing Up

Author:Robert Hass

“I got interested in the question of literacy because writers are always moaning about why more people don't read books. They long for the good old days when people read serious novels.”

People Long Book Novel Serious Literacy Old Days Good Old Days Moaning

Author:Robert Hass

“Everybody has a different idea of when those good old days were, but everyone is convinced that there was a time when literature really mattered and that it doesn't now. They also tend to believe that it really matters someplace else - in very improbable places often. Russia is someone's idea of a place where literature really counts.”

Believe Ideas Different Matter Literature Convinced Russia Old Days Improbable Good Old Days Different Ideas

Author:Robert Hass

“As I started reading about it, I saw that at the beginning of the 19th century, outside of New England - which was an unusually literate place - practically no one could read or write. And even in New England, the overall rate was only about 60 percent. That still means four out of 10 people couldn't put their name to a will.”

People Writing Mean Stills Reading Names Saws Four Century Percent England Rate 19th Century New England

Author:Robert Hass

“The ideal of universal literacy, in the West anyway, was first of all a Protestant idea - that everybody had to be able to read to save their soul. That idea got transposed into an idea of the importance of literacy for democratic citizenship.”

Firsts Ideas Soul Able Ideals Universal Importance Democratic West Citizenship Literacy Protestants

Author:Robert Hass