Modern America Quotes

• It is easy to understand why the cat has eclipsed the dog as modern America's favorite pet. People like pets to possess the same qualities they do. Cats are irresponsible and recognize no authority, yet are completely dependent on others for their material needs. Cats cannot be made to do anything useful. Cats are mean for the fun of it. In fact, cats possess so many of the same qualities as people that it is often hard to tell the people and the cats apart.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Dog, Fun, Mean

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People”, p.215, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The political terms 'will' and 'popular will' have a long track record in Western history going back to Rousseau. That record is profoundly anti-democratic, essentially inviting elites to interpret what the common people believe and want. In litigious modern America, that would be a judicial elite telling us how we meant to vote or should have voted.

  John Leo

  Believe, Should Have, America

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• The problem in modern America is not that an individual can't make a difference, but that nearly all of us are too distracted to even consider trying.

  Oliver DeMille

  Differences, America, Making A Difference

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• Cats are to dogs what modern people are to the people we used to have. Cats are slimmer, cleaner, more attractive, disloyal, and lazy. It's easy to understand why the cat has eclipsed the dog as modern America's favorite poet. People like poets to possess the same qualities they do.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Dog, Cat, America

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• We urgently need a debate about the best ways of supporting families in modern America, without blinders that prevent us from seeing the full extent of dependence and interdependence in American life. As long as we pretend that only poor or abnormal families need outside assistance, we will shortchange poor families, overcompensate rich ones, and fail to come up with effective policies for helping families in the middle.

  Stephanie Coontz

  America, Long, Needs

  Stephanie Coontz (2016). “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap”, p.73, Basic Books

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• In modern America, Judeo-Christian beliefs are often held up to ridicule and disdain by the media.

  D. James Kennedy

  Christian, Religious, Media

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• There's probably no concept in theology more repugnant to modern America than the idea of divine wrath.

  R. C. Sproul

  Wrath, Ideas, America

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• In modern America, food is abundant everywhere except aboard commercial airplanes.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Humorous, Food

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• In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while his article is still on the presses.

  Calvin Trillin

  Writing, America, Events

  Calvin Trillin (1987). “Uncivil liberties”, Penguin Group USA

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• Unless they can pass the same test that immigrants must pass to become citizens, people shouldnt be allowed to vote. The idea that there is some public benefit in ignoramuses and morons pulling levers next to names on a ballot is one of the evil myths of post-modern America. The purpose of voting, in our country, is to select men and women with the competence and integrity to operate the mechanics of government fixed by our Constitution. For this process to have any public benefit requires that the choices be made on an intelligent, knowledgeable and reasoned basis.

  Charley Reese

  Country, Integrity, Men

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• I was captivated by Sherrie Flick's meticulous and intelligent study of Margaret and Vivette, and the men they share. Reconsidering Happiness is a courageously intimate novel about the young women of modern America, their friendships, their betrayals, and their anxious cravings for everything from sex to pastry.

  Jim Crace

  Sex, Betrayal, Men

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• Bart Giamatti did not grow up (as he had dreamed) to play second base for the Red Sox. He became a professor at Yale, and then, in time president of the National Baseball League. He never lost his love for the Boston Red Sox. It was as a Red Sox fan, he later realized that human beings are fallen, and that life is filled with disappointment. The path to comprehending Calvinism in modern America, he decided, begins at Fenway Park.

  David Halberstam

  Baseball, Religious, Encouragement

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• If we must grind up human flesh and bones in the industrial machine that we call modern America, then, before God, I assert that those who consume the coal and you and I who benefit from that service, because we live in comfort, we owe protection to those men first and we owe security for their families if they die.

  John Lewis

  Men, Voice, America

  "Remembering The Centralia Mine Disaster". www.npr.org. March 25, 2014.

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