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American Values Quotes

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American Values Quotes

“What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.”

Religious FreedomAmerican ValuesFounding FathersNot An Apology
Book:A Memorial And Remonstrance, On The Religious Rights Of Man: Written In 1784-85
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“If we have a blind spot, it's more likely to involve those values where Americans have long been agreed, not where we are politically polarized. When they go unchallenged across generations, areas of agreement gradually morph into "timeless" truths, timeless truths become truisms, truisms become bipartisan platitudes. By that point, all serious thought has died. The values in question may shape us profoundly, but they've become like the air that we breathe, as invisible to us as they are ever present. And we can never think carefully about values we cannot see.”

American Values
Book:We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy
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“Americans, for the most part, take themselves entirely too seriously. They rarely see the absurdity of the television shows that they watch, of the hilarious silliness of shopping malls, or the dizzying frivolity of the unending fashions invented and discarded by the market.”

ConsumerismAmerican CultureAmerican ValuesAmercansAmerican Fads
Book:The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile's Story of Return & Revolution
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“Take a stand against intolerance and for our American values. Say it with pride: I support democracy in America. I support working people in America. I support opportunity in America. And I support Barack Obama for another four years as president of the United States of America!”

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Author:Richard Trumka
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“An idea is growing in foreign policy circles in Washington ... that there is no turning back. We are stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan for 25 to 40 years, we are embedded in our prideful unilateralism, and nothing can return us to more traditional American values and principles of action. The hubristic creators of this "inevitability" planned it this way. ... Their failures in Iraq have not stopped the fanatic, power-hungry neoconservatives. ... The hard-liners who dominate this administration ... have led us to eternal conflict with Muslims.”

WayYearsIdeasWarHardActionReligionValuesPrinciplesPowerGrowingPolicyReturnConflictEternalIraqCreatorCirclesStuckHungryTraditionalAdministrationAfghanistanForeign PolicyFanaticsEmbeddedInevitabilityAmerican ValuesNo Turning BackPower HungryUnilateralism
Author:Georgie Anne Geyer
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“The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, cited Haqqani to make the argument that Guantánamo must be shut down. He wrote:“Husain Haqqani, a thoughtful Pakistani scholar now teaching at Boston University, remarked to me: 'When people like myself say American values must be emulated and America is a bastion of freedom, we get Guantánamo Bay thrown in our faces. When we talk about the America of Jefferson and Hamilton, people back home say to us: 'That is not the America we are dealing with. We are dealing with the America of imprisonment without trial.'”

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Author:Husain Haqqani
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“As a general rule, when something gets elevated to apple-pie status in the hierarchy of American values, you have to suspect that its actual monetary value is skidding toward zero. Take motherhood: nobody ever thought of putting it on a moral pedestal until some brash feminists pointed out, about a century ago, that the pay is lousy and the career ladder nonexistent. Same thing with work: would we be so reverent about the 'work ethic' if it wasn't for the fact that the average working stiff's hourly pay is shrinking, year by year.”

IfsYearsFactsValuesWorkPayMoralCareersCenturyEthicsAverageFeministMotherhoodApplesSuspectsZeroPieWork EthicLaddersHierarchyMonetaryPedestalShrinkingAmerican ValuesApple PieBrashMonetary Value
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“Americans need to educate themselves, from elementary school onward, about what their country has done abroad. And they need to play a more active role in ensuring that what the United States does abroad is not merely in keeping with a foreign policy elite's sense of realpolitik but also with the American public's own sense of American values.”

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Author:Mohsin Hamid
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“There can be no more ancient and traditional American value than ignorance. English-only speakers brought it with them to this country three centuries ago, and they quickly imposed it on the Africans--who were not allowed to learn to read and write--and on the Native Americans, who were simply not allowed.”

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Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“I believed then, and continue to believe now, that the benefits to our security and freedom of widely available cryptography far, far outweigh the inevitable damage that comes from its use by criminals and terrorists. I believed, and continue to believe, that the arguments against widely available cryptography, while certainly advanced by people of good will, did not hold up against the cold light of reason and were inconsistent with the most basic American values.”

PeopleBelieveReasonUseLightValuesI BelieveSecurityColdBenefitsArgumentAvailableCriminalsTerroristInevitableDamageGood WillInconsistentAmerican ValuesCryptographySecurity And Freedom
Author:Matt Blaze
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“I think you have to repudiate torture and I think you have to end what's going on at Guantanamo and you have to live up to American values. Basically you restore - what the American dream brought to the world stage was respect for the individual and the idea that people aren't pawns that rulers can push around but they have rights.”

PeopleThinkingWorldIdeasEndsDreamValuesIndividualRightsStageTortureAmerican DreamRulersPawnsAmerican ValuesGuantanamo
Author:Wesley Clark
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“I know a bit about his [Sirk] life, but it's more about his style than biography. He was European and came out of a theater background, and could easily be defined as 'Brechtian.' He was expressionistic in his films, and was an example of those intensely intellectual artists who ended up working for American studios, and was handed the Ladies Home Journal and asked to adapt the stories for the screen. He found ways to use his artistry to make them interesting and nuanced, while critiquing American values in the process.”

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Author:Todd Haynes
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“There's very little dislike of Americans in the world, shown by repeated polls, and the dissatisfaction - that is, the hatred and the anger - they come from acceptance of American values, not a rejection of them, and recognition that they're rejected by the U.S. government and by U.S. elites, which does lead to hatred and anger.”

WorldLittlesDoeGovernmentValuesAcceptanceHatredRecognitionRejectionDislikeElitesRejectedPollsDissatisfactionAmerican ValuesHatred And Anger
Author:Noam Chomsky
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