20th century

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My ancestors were Puritans from England. They arrived here in 1648 in the hope of finding greater restrictions than were permissible under English law at that time.

Garrison Keillor

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Keillor, Garrison. Address in support of the National Endowment for the Arts. Congress meeting. c. 1990, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

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For years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country.

Charles E. Wilson

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Wilson, Charles. "Testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on his Proposed Nomination for Secretary of Defence." Senate Armed Services Committee meeting. 15 Jan. 1953, Washington, DC, USA.

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The United States could well declare unilaterally that this stage of the Vietnam war is over-that we have "won" in the sense that our Armed Forces are in control of most of the field and no potential enemy is in a position to establish its authority over South Vietnam.

George Aiken

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Aiken, George. "Vietnam Analysis-Present and Future." US Senate. 19 Oct. 1966, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

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Current Citation

Aiken, George. "Vietnam Analysis-Present and Future." Landmark Speeches on the Vietnam War. Texas A&M University Press, 2010.

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All political power is primarily an illusion... Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud, that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth.

Jimmy Breslin

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Breslin, Jimmy. How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes from an Impeachment Summer. Viking Press, 1975, ch. 2.

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Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann

Lotte in Weimar

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Buy Lotte in Weimar at Amazon Buy Lotte in Weimar at Amazon

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Mann, Thomas. Lotte in Weimar [The Beloved Returns]. Stockholm: Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1939, ch. 7.

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The mores come down to us from the past. Each individual is born into them as he is born into the atmosphere, and he does not reflect on them, or criticise them any more than a baby analyzes the atmosphere before he begins to breathe it.

William Graham Sumner

Folkways

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Sumner, William Graham. Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals. Ginn & Company, 1906, ch. 2.

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The English speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; (5) those who know and distinguish. Those who neither know nor care are the vast majority and are a happy folk, to be envied by the most of the minority classes.

H.W. Fowler

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Fowler, H. W. "Split infinitive." A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press, 1926.

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it wont be long now it wont be long
man is making deserts of the earth
it wont be long now
before man will have it used up
so that nothing but ants
and centipedes and scorpions
can find a living on it

Don Marquis

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Marquis, Donald. "What the Ants are Saying." Archy Does His Part. The Evening Sun, c. 1935.

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Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following upon another as wave follows upon wave.

H.A.L. Fisher

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Fisher, Herbert Albert Laurens. A History of Europe. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935, preface.

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Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room.

Heywood Broun

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Broun, Heywood. New York World, 6 Feb. 1928.

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The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks the question, What is the significance of Man? He alone can stand apart imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal aspects, pronounce a judgement. The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.

Carl Becker

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Becker, Carl. Progress and Power. A. A. Knopf, 1936.

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The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

Steven Weinberg

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Weinberg, Steven. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe. Basic Books, 1977, epilogue.

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I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse,
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.
I shall not be there, I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

Stephen Vincent Benét

American Names

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Benét, Stephen Vincent. "American Names." Yale Review, Oct. 1927.

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The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

Robert Maynard Hutchins

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Hutchins, Robert Maynard. Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education. Simon and Schuster, 1954.

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I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

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Fosdick, Harry Emerson. "The Unknown Soldier." The Secret Of Victorious Living. Harper & Brothers, 1934. Originally a sermon delivered on 12 Nov. 1933, Riverside Church, New York, NY, USA.

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