“There are two outstanding issues in democratic politics these days. One is the relationship with the media, which is now 24/7, and operates with a completely different intensity than even 15 or 20 years ago. How do we have a proper conversation between leaders and country when it's moderated sometimes in a very partisan and inflammatory way? And the second thing is the effectiveness of our democracy. How do we get the right gene and talent pool in politics?” WayYearsTwoDifferentCountrySometimesLeaderDemocracyIssuesTalentMediaConversationYears AgoDemocraticThese DaysIntensityPoolGenesEffectivenessOutstandingPartisans Author:Tony Blair
“Just a few years ago India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were one country. Actually, we were many countries if you count the princely states.... Then the British drew a line, and now we're three countries, two of them pointing nukes at each other - the radical Hindu bomb and the radical Muslim bomb.” IfsYearsTwoCountryStatesThreeLinesYears AgoIndiaBritishRadicalBombsPakistanPointingBangladeshNukesIndia Pakistan Author:Arundhati Roy
“I think East Asian countries, I think they're very fortunate to have Buddhism survive as a strong influence because right from the time when Buddha himself, 2,500 years ago, made the point about the importance of education, and the word "Buddha" also means enlighten[ed] or educated. So all the Buddhist countries, not only Japan and Korea and China and Hong Kong and Thailand but also even Burma and Sri Lanka, had a higher level of education.” ThinkingYearsMeanMadeCountryStrongLevelsInfluenceBuddhismHigherYears AgoImportanceChinaEastEducatedBuddhistFortunateJapanAsianKoreaEnlighteningHigher LevelHong KongThailandBurmaSri LankaImportance Of EducationAsian Countries Author:Amartya Sen
“In America, we happen to be living in a third world country from the point of view of economic and social development. I came back from New York yesterday and I took the fastest train in the country, the Acela. My wife and I took the New York-Boston train sixty years ago - it wasn't called the Acela then - and I think it's improved by about fifteen minutes since then. Any other country in the world would be about half the time. In fact when it's riding along the Connecticut turnpike it's barely keeping up with traffic, which is just scandalous.” ThinkingWorldYearsCountryFactsHappensWould BeAmericaSocialViewsHalfWifeEconomicMinutesNew YorkDevelopmentYears AgoThirdsTrainMy WifePoint Of ViewYesterdayRidingSixtyOther CountriesFifteenTrafficBostonThird WorldSocial DevelopmentScandalousConnecticutThird World Countries Author:Noam Chomsky
“Half of the [USA] population, roughly, thinks the world was created a couple thousand years ago. Two thirds of the country is expecting the second coming of Christ. They've also had to turn to nativists. The gun culture in the United States, which is out of control, is party fueled by people who think 'we've got to have our guns to protect ourselves.'” PeopleThinkingWorldYearsTwoCountryStatesTurnsCultureChristUnitedPartyHalfUnited StatesCoupleThousandProtectGunYears AgoThirdsPopulationUsaExpectingThousand YearsGun Culture Author:Noam Chomsky
“Today, we have come a distance. We have made a lot of progress. That cannot be denied. You cannot dispute the fact that our country is so different from 50 years ago. But we still have problems. There are too many people that have been left out and left behind, and they are African American, they are White, Latino, Asian American, and Native American.” PeopleYearsHas BeensMadeStillsDifferentCountryFactsProblemTodayLeftWhiteBehindsProgressYears AgoDistanceOur CountryAfrican AmericanNativeDeniedNative AmericanDisputesLeft BehindAsianLatinoLeft OutAsian American Author:John Lewis
“You may know that in India now the Tata car is becoming all the rage; you can buy it for one lakh - $2000 dollars - it's very, very cheap. So India seems to be going the route that China went a few years ago and that developing countries all over the world seem to want to follow, namely, to rely on these personal vehicles, which is just an irrational way of organizing transport.” KnowsWorldWayWantYearsMayCountrySeemsCarBecomingYears AgoIndiaDollarsChinaRageDevelopingRelyVehicleIrrationalRoutesTransportDeveloping CountriesTata Author:Thomas Pogge
“If we're not vigilant foreign countries can have an impact on the political debate in the United States in ways that might not have been true 10, 20, 30 years ago in - in part because of the way news is transmitted and in part because so many people are skeptical of mainstream news organizations that - everything's true and everything's false.” PeopleIfsWayYearsHas BeensCountryStatesMightPoliticalUnitedUnited StatesNewsYears AgoOrganizationImpactDebateMainstreamSkepticalVigilantForeign CountriesPolitical Debates Author:Barack Obama
“I mean, the Constitution of this country was written 200 years ago. The house I was living in in Madrid is 350 years old! America is still a project, and you guys are working on it and bringing new things to it every day. That is beautiful to watch.” YearsMeanStillsCountryAmericaBeautifulGuyHouseWatchesWrittenProjectsYears AgoConstitutionNew ThingsMadrid Author:Antonio Banderas
“It was an honor and privilege to arrive to this country 16 years ago with almost no money in my pocket. A lot has happened since then.” YearsCountryMoneyHappenedHonorYears AgoLifetimePrivilegePocketsNo MoneySaving Money Author:Antonio Banderas
“Forty years ago this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died. I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again - and if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie, perhaps I've done some damn good here!” PeopleIfsThinkingYearsIdeasCountryDoneMillionsIssuesYears AgoDiedHolesDamnFortyVietnamRabbitsBrilliant IdeasDamn GoodRabbit Holes Author:Errol Morris
“Measured in time of transport and communication, the whole round globe is now smaller than a small European country was a hundred years ago.” YearsCountryWholeCommunicationHundredEuropeYears AgoRoundsGlobesTransportEuropean Countries Author:John Boyd Orr
“Back a hundred years ago, especially around Woodrow Wilson, what happened in this country is we took freedom and we chopped it into pieces.” YearsCountryPiecesHappenedHundredYears AgoWilson Author:Ron Paul
“At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn't exist except as a part of everything.” PeopleIfsWayYearsChildrenCountryStatesGrowing UpMeditationGrowingSeeingCreationYears AgoOnenessTranscendentalTranscendental MeditationChildren Growing UpGrowing Children Author:Alice Walker
“I sip my coffee. I look at the mountain, which is still doing its tricks, as you look at a still-beautiful face belonging to a person who was once your lover in another country years ago: with fond nostalgia, and recognition, but no real feelings save a secret astonishment that you are now strangers. Thanks. For the memories. It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator--our very self-consciousness--is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution, cutting us off at both ends.” YearsLooksPersonsStillsRealEndsSelfCountryFeelingsBeautifulFacesMemoriesSecretConsciousnessCuttingOne ThingEvolutionLoversMountainCreaturesYears AgoFellowsCreatorStrangerNostalgiaCoffeeTricksBitterThanksRecognitionBelongingDividesIronicSelf ConsciousnessAstonishmentSeparatingBeautiful FaceReal Feelings Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK Source: PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
“I can only say the first thing that pops into my mind is I remember, years ago, seeing kind of a has-been country singer working - when I first moved to Nashville - in a bar in a Holiday Inn.” YearsMindFirstsKindHas BeensI CanCountryRememberSeeingYears AgoMovedPopsSingersBarsHolidayNashvilleInnsCountry Singer Author:Jimmy Buffett
“Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.” ShouldYearsMadeCountryLeftForeverYears AgoSevenAssuredSeven YearsTreatiesBuffalo Book:Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches Source: Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches
“The first time I ever saw snow skis was when I was 62 years old and that was 19 years ago and I'm still skiing. So, we'll be skiing with some very close friends of the Carter Center letting them know what the Carter Center is doing around the world. We have programs in over 65 countries.” KnowsWorldYearsFirstsStillsCountrySawsFirst TimeYears AgoProgramSnowAround The WorldCarterClose FriendsSkisSkiing Author:Jimmy Carter
“As Jeremy Bentham had asked about animals well over two hundred years ago, the question was not whether they could reason or talk, but could they suffer? And yet, somehow, it seemed to take more imagination for humans to identify with animal suffering than it did to conceive of space flight or cloning or nuclear fusion. Yes, she was a fanatic in the eyes of most of the country. . .Mostly, however, she just lacked patience for people who wouldn't accept her belief that humans inflicted needless agony on the animals around them, and they did so in numbers that were absolutely staggering.” PeopleYearsHumansWellsTwoCountryReasonEyeSufferingBeliefImaginationSpaceAnimalNumbersAcceptingHundredYears AgoNuclearFlightAgonyFanaticsFusionStaggeringCloningSpace FlightAnimal SufferingNuclear Fusion Author:Chris Bohjalian
“Some years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then either the Afro-Americans didn't get in the pot or he didn't get melted down.” IfsYearsSaidCountryJusticeOpinionYears AgoSocial JusticePotMeltingMelting PotAfros Author:Thurgood Marshall
“I wrote those poems for myself, as a way of being a soldier here in this country. I didn't know the poems would travel. I didn't go to Lebanon until two years ago, but people told me that many Arabs had memorized these poems and translated them into Arabic.” PeopleKnowsWayYearsTwoCountryTravelYears AgoSoldierTwo YearsFunny TravelLebanonTwo Years Ago Author:June Jordan
“I mean, honestly, we have to be clear that the life for many Afghan women is not that much different than it was a hundred years ago, 200 years ago. The country has lived with so much violence and conflict that many people, men and women, just want it to be over.” PeopleMenWantYearsMeanDifferentCountryClearViolenceConflictHundredMen And WomenYears AgoHonestlyAfghan Author:Hillary Clinton
“If a little less time was devoted to the translation of letters by Julius Caesar describing Britain 2000 years ago and a little more time was spent on teaching children how to describe (in simple modern English) the method whereby ethylene was converted into polythene in 1933 in the ICI laboratories at Northwich, and to discussing the enormous social changes which have resulted from this discovery, then I believe that we should be training future leaders in this country to face the world of tomorrow far more effectively than we are at the present time.” IfsWorldShouldYearsBelieveChildrenLittlesCountryFacesScienceI BelieveSocialSimpleLeaderHistoryTeachingModernTomorrowFutureTrainingResearchDiscoveryYears AgoLettersMethodEnormousBritainMore TimeDevotedSocial ChangeTranslationsLaboratoryDescribingDiscussingPresent TimeTeaching ChildrenJuliusFuture LeadersModern English Author:Ronald Sydney Nyholm