Home > Work > One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
1 " The most capricious modern entitlement is not just Social Security but to self-esteem. "
― George F. Will , One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
2 " Gifted teachers master the patience required for the unending business of transmitting civilization down the generations, transforming biological facts – children – into social artifacts called citizens. It is wearying work and it is a wonder teachers can summon the stamina for it. "
3 " Institutions are lengthening shadows of strong individuals. "
4 " Government could avoid having opinions about so many things if it would quit subsidizing so many things. "
5 " Get evangelical Christian made them receptive to the possibility of redemption in the here and now. "
6 " National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds. "
7 " In this snug, over-safe corner of the world… we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous, untamed and streaming world. "
8 " The columnist gives these words to the longings of an 11-year-old he meets with Tourette's syndrome: "Wisdom is encoded in our common language. We all have, to some extent, a complex, sometimes adversarial, relationship with our physical selves. And I more than most people know that it is correct to say,'I have a body.' There is my body, and then there is ME, trying to make it behave. "
9 " Author complains about "the further submergence of irrecoverable history into a perpetually churned present. "
10 " The almost-always-ghastly exclamation point has been lately compared to canned laughter. "
11 " Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, "What you are doing is none of my business" and "What I am doing is none of your business. "
12 " Because of demagogues, rhetoric has a tainted reputation in our time. However, rhetoric is central to democratic governance. It can fuse passion and persuasion, moving free people to freely choose what is noble. "
13 " Matthew Arnold was a fastidious social critic and hence an accomplished complainer. When he died, an acquaintance said: "Poor Matt, he's going to Heaven, no doubt – but he won't like God. "
14 " Good actors, including political actors, do not deal in unrealities. Rather, they create realities that matter – perceptions, aspirations, allegiances. "
15 " Nothing is so irretrievably lost to a society as the sense of fear it felt about a grave danger that was subsequently coped with. "
