Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Rich Cohen

Quote by Rich Cohen

“The way the kids of immigrants heard about America, you would think it was not down the stairs and out the door but still across the ocean, a distant place where everything is promised and, for hard work, everything is given. From the day he left his parents' house, Abe [Reles] had to know his father was right, that America promises everything, but he also had to know his father was wrong--America gives nothing. Those things that are promised, they cannot be worked for but must be taken, conned away with good looks, obsequiousness, mimicry; or traded for with bit of your soul or the morals of the stories your parents told; or tricked away with lies; or wrested away with brute force.”

Quote by Rich Cohen

Book:Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams
Create image

Work

Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Rich Cohen

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Rich Cohen. more

You May Also Like

“It was in 1931 that the historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase “the American dream.” The American dream is not just a yearning for affluence, Adams said, but also for the chance to overcome barriers and social class, to become the best that we can be. Adams acknowledged that the United States didn’t fully live up to that ideal, but he argued that America came closer than anywhere else.”

AmericaWealthUnited StatesImprovementAmerican DreamJames Truslow Adams
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“A self-evident and prefabricated symbolism attaches itself to this slow climb to the zenith, and we are not so foolishly ironic, or confident, as to miss the opportunity to glimpse significantly into the eyes of the other and share the thought that occurs to all at this summit, which is, of course, that they have made it thus far, to a point where they can see horizons previously unseen, and the old earth reveals itself newly. Everything is further heightened, as we must obscurely have planned, by signs of sundown.”

TriumphClimbingAmerican DreamConquestThe Future
Book:Netherland
Create image

“It is ignorance that is at times incomprehensible to the wise; for instance, he may not see 'the positive person' or 'the negative person' in such a black and white way as many people do. A wise man may not understand it because, as a catalyst of wisdom, but not always wise in his own eyes, even he can learn from and give back to fools. To think that an individual has absolutely nothing to offer to the table is counter-intuitively what the wise man considers to be 'the ignorance of hopelessness'.”

PeopleWisdomHopeUnderstandingCompassionPositiveIgnoranceNegativeHopelessnessFools
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“In a large sense, Main Street is the American origin story. It's an evocation of the American creation tale, and the kick is that the American origin story is a never-ending one, a perpetual tale of creation and re-creation, an eternal now.”

American DreamDisneylandDisneyDisney QuotesMain Street Usa
Book:The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014 - Disneyland: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Place on Earth
Create image

“So we navigate mostly by dead reckoning, and deduction from what clues we find. I keep a compass in one pocket for overcast days when the sun doesn't show directions and have the map mounted in a special carrier on top of the gas tank where I can keep track of miles from the last junction and know what to look for. With those tools and a lack of pressure to 'get somewhere' it works out fine and we just about have America all to ourselves.”

InspirationalTravelAmerican Dream
Book:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Create image