“We must look at what immigration to America involves. To the new arrivals, the change is excruciating. Learning a new language and dealing with strange customs make the first years of life in the new land painful... The economic system of the United States is a mighty engine of persuasion. It motivates people to do what otherwise they never would in return for fulfilling their dreams. In the process, people learn that there is no sharp line between physical well-being and the higher purposes of life. The comfort of owning a house is at once meeting the obligation to care for one” PeopleYearsFirstsWellsLooksStatesDreamCareAmericaPurposeHouseLanguageProcessLinesUnitedUnited StatesEconomicLandStrangeReturnHigherComfortMeetingsPainfulImmigrationObligationWell BeingCustomsPurpose Of LifeEnginesFulfillingPersuasionArrivalsEconomic SystemsYears Of LifeHigher PurposeNew Arrivals Author:John Lachs
“It's an America with strange mythic depths. I see it as a distorting mirror; a book of danger and secrets, of romance and magic. It's about the soul of America, really. What people brought to America; what found them when they came; and the things that lie sleeping beneath it all.” PeopleBookSoulAmericaRomanceLyingFoundSleepSecretMagicDangerStrangeMirrorsDepth Author:Neil Gaiman
“There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change There was a strange stillness The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.” HeartAmericaSoundVoiceSilenceMorningFieldsStrangeSpringBirdAreasTownsHarmonyLaysWoodsDawnScoreStillnessSurroundingsChorusEcoMarshesBlight Author:Rachel Carson
“I feel that the time is always right to do what is right. Where progress for the Negro in America is concerned, there is a tragic misconception of time among whites. They seem to cherish a strange, irrational notion that something in the very flow of time will cure all ills.” FeelsSeemsAmericaProgressStrangeConcernedFlowNotionCuresTragicCherishIrrationalMisconception Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If life is music, I sometimes feel as though I was born on the off-beat of the song, and I love it. As Christian numbers reportedly decrease in America, my love for Christ feels as though it increases. I must be honest about such strange feelings: I now want to be thought unfaithful about as much as a bougie aristocrat wants to be thought a hobo.” IfsWantFeelsSometimesFeelingsChristianAmericaLife IsSongChristBornNumbersHonestStrangeBeatsIncreaseBeing HonestDecreaseUnfaithfulHobos Author:Criss Jami
“It's strange how things happen, Mauricio Silva, known as the Eye, always tried to escape from violence even at the risk of being considered a coward, but the violence, the real violence, can't be escaped, at least not by us, born in Latin America in the 1950s, those of us who were around twenty years old when Salvador Allende died.” YearsRealHappensEyeAmericaBornKnownViolenceRiskStrangeDiedTwentiesThings HappenLatinCowardLatin America Author:Roberto Bolano
“Things get very lonely in Washington sometimes. The real voice of the great people of America sometimes sounds faint and distant in that strange city. You hear politics until you wish that both parties were smothered in their own gas.” PeopleRealSometimesAmericaWishSoundVoicePartyCitiesStrangeLonelyGasGreat People Book:Addresses of President Wilson Source: Addresses of President Wilson
“perhaps these men in the House Caucus Room [Committee on Un-American Activities] are determined to spread silence: to frighten those voices which will shout no, and ask questions, defend the few, attack cruelty and proclaim the rights and dignity of man. ... America is going to look very strange to Americans and they will not be at home here, for the air will slowly become unbreathable to all forms of life except sheep.” MenLooksHomeAmericaFormAsksHouseVoiceRoomsSilenceRightsAirStrangeActivityDignitySpreadDeterminedCrueltyCensorshipSheepCommitteesCaucus Author:Martha Gellhorn
“Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, 'His color is not mine,' or 'His beliefs are strange and different,' in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this nation.” DifferentMomentsAmericaRememberBeliefNationsJusticeMinesStrangeColorCitizensFellowsDenyThat MomentBetray Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“In a strange way, I expected Russia to become more like America since the Soviet Union collapsed, but the reverse is true. America has become more like Russia: a kleptocratic society.” WayAmericaStrangeUnionsExpectedRussiaSovietReverseSoviet Union Author:Gary Shteyngart
“There is a structural difference between the way that Europe views Israel, and America views Israel. The European view is informed by the importance of colonialism in Europe's past. So for Europeans we are like Belgiums in the Congo, or the French in Alger, or the British in India. Strange interlopers in somebody else's land. But in fact, we [Israeli] have been here for 4,000 years. This is our ancestral homeland.” WayYearsHas BeensFactsAmericaPastDifferencesViewsLandStrangeEuropeIndiaImportanceIsraelBritishColonialismIsraeliHomelandCongo Author:Benjamin Netanyahu
“The self was a very strange concept to me until I came to America, and my child was born with that entitlement, and that just thrilled me.” ChildrenSelfAmericaBornStrangeConceptsMy ChildrenEntitlement Author:Anchee Min