“Sometimes all that saves me is being willing to make mistakes. There are projects that strike me as so beautiful, important, complicated, or just plain big, that they convince me of my own inadequacy. This awful state of reverence leads to paralyzing brain freeze. At times like that the only way out is for me to decide, 'To hell with it. I can't do it right, so I'll do it wrong. I can't do it well, but I can do it badly.' Sometimes, with luck, while I'm sweating to do it wrong, I stumble on a right way.” WayWellsI CanImportantSometimesStatesBigsBeautifulCan DoMy OwnMistakeBrainHellWillingProjectsLuckComplicatedStrikesAwfulConvinceMaking MistakesReverenceRight WayFreezeI Can Do ItSave MeInadequacySweating Author:Katherine Dunn
“The United States cannot reshape other countries in its own image and that, with a few exceptions, its efforts to police the world are neither in its interests nor within the scope of its resources. This whole tendency to see ourselves as the center of political enlightenment and as teachers to a great part of the rest of the world strikes me as unthought-through, vainglorious and undesirable.” WorldCountryStatesWholeAmericaPoliticalInterestUnitedEffortUnited StatesTeacherEnlightenmentResourcesPoliceStrikesTendenciesExceptionOther CountriesScopeUndesirable Author:George F. Kennan
“The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise, but hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude or to pursue very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation.” FirstsStatesDesireUnitedUnited StatesConditionsAmbitionOriginalsAimPropertySeekingStrikesPursueReputationAcquireMidstYearningAmbitiousMultitudesTravelerLoftyMagnitudeRarity Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
“It is not always possible to know, when you make a note of an event, or a state of mind, how this may strike someone perhaps ten thousand years later.” KnowsYearsMindMayStatesEventsThousandTenNotesStrikesState Of MindThousand Years Book:Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1) Source: Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)
“I propose the immediate launching of a nuclear strike on the United States. The Cuban people are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause of the destruction of imperialism and the victory of world revolution.” PeopleWorldStatesCausesUnitedUnited StatesSacrificeRevolutionVictoryDestructionPreparedStrikesNuclearImperialismProposeCubanLaunchingCuban Revolution Author:Fidel Castro
“One of the reasons I believe the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our Government has been to ask the Israelis, and demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them.” WayBelieveHas BeensStatesReasonGovernmentAmericaSpiritualAsksI BelieveUnitedUnited StatesDoorsPolicyDemandPressureStrikesTerroristSignificantUnited States Of America Author:James Inhofe