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American Life Quotes

Browse 209 quotes about American Life.

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American Life Quotes

“Today's secular libertarians, who want to remove biblical religion from public life, have trouble making sense of the civil rights movement because it was so clearly a religiously inspired movement that entered the public arena and made a major difference in American life.”

WantMadeTodayChristianDifferencesReligiousRightsTroubleMovementMajorsInspiredLibertarianCivil RightsMake SenseRemoveBiblicalSecularArenaPublic LifeCivil Rights MovementAmerican LifeTrouble Making
Author:Bruce L. Shelley
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“In grades 1 through 4 these books introduce the child to U.S. society - to family life, community activities, ordinary economic transactions, and some history. None of the books covering grades 1 through 4 contain one word referring to any religious activity in contemporary American life.”

ChildrenBookChristianCommunityReligiousEconomicActivityOrdinaryContemporaryGradesIntroducingFamily LifeOne WordCoveringTransactionsReferringAmerican Life
Author:Paul Vitz
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“We urgently need a debate about the best ways of supporting families in modern America, without blinders that prevent us from seeing the full extent of dependence and interdependence in American life. As long as we pretend that only poor or abnormal families need outside assistance, we will shortchange poor families, overcompensate rich ones, and fail to come up with effective policies for helping families in the middle.”

WayNeedsLongHelpingAmericaPoorRichFailingSeeingModernMiddlePolicyCome UpDebateBest WayDependenceAssistanceAbnormalInterdependenceAmerican LifeBlindersPoor FamilyModern America
Book:The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
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“Serious skeptics, true believers, and seekers of every stripe will want to read Mitch Horowitz's vibrant, probing, and richly researched account of the impact of the positive-thinking movement on every aspect of American life today. Filled with a cast of remarkable characters and many lively tales, One Simple Idea is a readable, responsible examination of the limits and possibilities of mind-power as a source of constructive transformation.”

ThinkingWantMindIdeasCharacterTodaySimpleMovementPossibilityPositive ThinkingSeriousSourceLimitsAspectAccountsTransformationResponsibleImpactFilledCastsBelieverTalesRemarkableSeekersExaminationConstructiveLivelySkepticAmerican LifeStripesTrue BelieverPower Of The MindProbingSimple Ideas
Author:Judith Viorst
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“If we [Americans] are a strong people, a united people, why do we always have to hear how great we are? What is this self-love? Where does this come from? It got worse, because after the war we thought we'd won it. That's the first myth. Frankly, Russia won it. The Soviet Union sacrificed far greater form than anyone else to win that war. Secondly, we had the atomic bomb. We should not have dropped it on Japan. We did as an example to the Soviets, not to defeat Japan and to save American lives. These are myths that we explode with a lot of research early on.”

PeopleIfsShouldFirstsDoeWarSelfFormWinningStrongUnitedGreaterExampleSelf LoveResearchUnionsDefeatMythRussiaBombsJapanSovietSoviet UnionAmerican LifeAtomic BombStrong People
Author:Oliver Stone
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“Those who first introduced compulsory education into American life knew exactly why children should go to school and learn to read: to save their souls.... Consistent with this goal, the first book written and printed for children in America was titled Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England, drawn from the Breasts of both Testaments for their Souls' Nourishment.”

ShouldFirstsChildrenBookSoulSchoolAmericaSpiritualGoalEducationWrittenEnglandConsistentBreastsMilkTestamentBostonPrintedNourishmentBabeAmerican LifeCompulsoryCompulsory Education
Author:Dorothy H Cohen
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“In general, American life is more easy-going. And civic pride, national pride in a cultural sense, is great in America. I think what they esteem in America is character and energy, and being different and superior to other peoples. Of course, every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it's a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots.”

ThinkingFeelsDifferentCharacterFeelingsAmericaLife IsCoursesEnergyNationsEasyCasesPrideSuperiorsEsteemPatriotCivicsBeing DifferentAmerican LifeOminousEasy GoingNational Pride
Author:James Salter
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“[last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.”

NightIndianNativeSunsetFlashNative AmericanIndigenousMother EarthAmerican IndianAmerican LifeGreat AmericanNative American WisdomBuffaloGreat SpiritNative AmericaFireflyNative American IndianWhat Is LifeGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomNative WisdomAmerican SpiritNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualWintertimeBeautiful SunsetCherokeeShadow Of DeathSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsWhite CloudsIndian TribesCherokee Indian
Author:Crowfoot
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“The government of the United States, under Lyndon Johnson, proposes to concern itself over the quality of American life. And this is something very new in the political theory of free nations. The quality of life has heretofore depended on the quality of the human beings who gave tone to that life, and they were its priests and its poets, not its bureaucrats.”

HumansStatesGovernmentPoliticalNationsHuman BeingsUnitedQualityUnited StatesPoetTheoryConcernTonePriestsProposeQuality Of LifeJohnsonBureaucratsAmerican LifePolitical Theory
Author:William F. Buckley, Jr.
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“Only by acknowledging the full extent of slavery's full grip on U.S. Society - its intimate connections to present day wealth and power, the depth of its injury to black Americans, the shocking nearness in time of its true end - can we reconcile the paradoxes of current American life.”

EndsBlackWealthConnectionsSlaveryDepthCurrentsIntimateInjuryParadoxShockingReconcilePresent DayAmerican Life
Book:Slavery by Another Name: The re-enslavement of black americans from the civil war to World War Two
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“Commercialism is the blemish on the fair face of American life. Fighting against the terrible conditions of the explorer and pioneer, our forefathers had little time to think of beauty. Hearts and heads became as hardened to the more gracious things of life as did their bodies against physical hardship. Little by little, as nature yielded before the dynamite of their wills, life began to express itself in the same hard terms, and the great commerce of a New World bent everything to its indomitable will.”

ThinkingWorldHeartLittlesHardBodyFacesFightingTermBusinessConditionsTerribleFairsHardshipNew WorldCommerceBentGraciousPioneersLittle TimeExplorersTime To ThinkAmerican LifeForefathersHardenedDynamiteHead And HeartCommercialismIndomitableIndomitable Will
Author:Alice Foote MacDougall
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“Our new immigrants must be part of our one America. After all, they're revitalizing our cities, they're energizing our culture, they're building up our economy. We have a responsibility to make them welcome here, and they have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American life. That means learning English and learning about our democratic system of government. There are now long waiting lines of immigrants that are trying to do just that. Therefore, our budget significantly expands our efforts to help them meet their responsibility. I hope you will support it.”

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Author:William J. Clinton
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“I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.”

CharacterBehindsKnownStreetsCriticismLaysStreamsAmerican LifeCottagesSneerMain Street
Book:The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover, 1928
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“Obama said, 'Now let me be clear, issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.' No, he said, 'the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life.' So on one hand, 12-year-old girls are stoned to death for the crime of being raped in Muslim countries. But on the other hand, we still don't have enough female firefighters here in America.”

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Author:Ann Coulter
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“The lesson this teaches and which every Afro-American should ponder well, is that a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. When the white man who is always the aggressor knows he runs as great a risk of biting the dust every time his Afro-American victim does, he will have greater respect for Afro-American life. The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged and lynched.”

KnowsMenGivingShouldWellsDoeHomeRunningLawUsedBlackWhiteTeachGreaterRiskHonorLessonsShould HaveVictimRefuseProtectionDustYieldWhite ManPonderingRiflesAmerican LifeInsultedBitingOutragedCringeAggressorsAfros
Book:On Lynchings
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“The individualism of American life, to our glory and despair, creates anger and encourages its release; for when everything is possible, limitations are irksome. When the desires of the self come first, the needs of others are annoying. When we think we deserve it all, reaping only a portion can enrage.”

ThinkingNeedsFirstsSelfDesireDespairGloryDeserveReleaseLimitationAnnoyingIndividualismPortionsAmerican LifeNeeds Of Others
Book:Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion
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“It's like our go-to notion of innocent and secure mythology of American life. I was always amazed when people would come up to me and say that 'Far from Heaven' was exactly what it was like back then. [laughs] I was so disinterested in what it was 'really like' in the 1950s when I was putting the film together, I was only interested in what it was like in movies.”

PeopleTogetherFilmHeavenLaughingNotionCome UpMythologyInnocentSecureAmazedAmerican LifeDisinterested
Author:Todd Haynes
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“You know, I began my life as a creative person writing true things for magazines and telling some very honest, straightforward personal essaying for This American Life, but until someone forces you, with a deadline, to really observe your life - unless you're motivated to do it yourself - there's so many stories that you miss.”

KnowsWritingPersonsStoriesForceCreativeHonestMissingMagazinesMotivatedStraightforwardDeadlineAmerican LifeCreative PersonDo It YourselfTrue Things
Author:John Hodgman
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“Though the two issues may seem utterly unrelated, they do have this in common - both health care and higher education are realms of American life in which government has undermined the operation of market forces and caused artificially high prices. These are two arenas in which the Democrats now propose to do exactly the wrong thing. Their reform reinforces old errors and will infinitely compound the problem of rising prices.”

MayTwoProblemSeemsGovernmentCareForceCommonIssuesHigherErrorsDemocratReformHealth CareOperationsRealmsRisingArenaProposeWrong ThingsCompoundsAmerican LifeHigher EducationHigh PricesRising Prices
Author:Mona Charen
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“I think we're going to care more about Americans than Africans. I don't think that's ever going to go away, and I don't think it's ever going to go away that people care more about their families than strangers, and their communities over other communities. But I think it would transform the world in such a good way if we could just acknowledge, at least intellectually, that an African life and an American life are the same.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWayCareCommunityStrangerAcknowledgeGoing AwayGood WayAmerican Life
Author:Paul Bloom
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“Donald Trump wants to make it clear to the American people that, while Hillary Clinton is committed to open borders, and amnesty, and executive amnesty, and more of the same that has really harmed our economy, and, frankly, as he said, with regard to dangerous individuals in this country, has cost American lives. . . .”

PeopleWantSaidCountryIndividualEconomyClearDangerousTrumpCostRegardClintonCommittedBordersExecutivesAmerican LifeAmnesty
Author:Mike Pence
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“I produced a play in New York that got nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best American Play.The play is called Stalking The Bogeyman. It was a story on This American Life, and my former roommate is the artistic director of the New York Repertory Theater. He heard the NPR show, contacted them, and essentially - shortest synopsis ever, like I'm the Cablevision guide button - it's the true story of a man stalking and plotting to kill the man who raped him when he was seven. It's by a brilliant reporter named David Holthouse.”

MenPlayStoriesShowsHeardNew YorkHe ManDirectorsTheaterCriticsSevenGuidesBrilliantCirclesFormerArtisticAwardsButtonsReportersStalkingTrue StoryAmerican LifeRoommateNprBest AmericanSynopsis
Author:Adam Richman
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“There was a kind of cultural life in New York that wasn't as solidified as it is now, it wasn't as money-driven. If you look at the size of the successful art galleries compared to the size of galleries now - there was no such thing as the Gagosian Gallery or Pace Gallery. But it was a time when magazines were a vital part of American life, and Esquire gave me a free pass to every world - I could get to the art world, the theater world, the movie world. It allowed you to roam through the cultural life of New York City.”

IfsWorldLooksKindArtCitiesSuccessfulNew YorkTheaterSizeDrivenMagazinesNew York CityPaceGalleryAmerican LifeArt WorldArt Galleries
Author:Robert Benton
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