Rugged Individualism Quotes

• Except in a few well-publicized instances (enough to lend credence to the iconography painted on the walls of the media), the rigorous practice of rugged individualism usually leads to poverty, ostracism and disgrace. The rugged individualist is too often mistaken for the misfit, the maverick, the spoilsport, the sore thumb.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Wall, Pain, Media

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• For all the huffing and blowing we get about rugged individualism, the American spirit and the American experiment always have had at their heart the notion that the government is all of us and that, therefore, the government may keep things in trust for all of us.

  Charlie Pierce

  Heart, Government, May

  "I Dream of Common Wealth" by Charlie Pierce, www.esquire.com. March 29, 2012.

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• While I can make no claim for having introduced the term "rugged individualism," I should be proud to have invented it. It has been used by American leaders for over a half-century in eulogy of those God-fearing men and women of honesty whose stamina and character and fearless assertion of rights led them to make their own way in life.

  Herbert Hoover

  Honesty, Character, Men

  Herbert Hoover (1934). “Challenge Liberty”

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• It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

  Herbert Hoover

  Government, Important

  Herbert Hoover (1929). “The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover, 1928”, p.167, Stanford University Press

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• 'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality.

  Emma Goldman

  Men, Opportunity, America

  "The Individual, Society and the State". Book by Emma Goldman (p. 112), 1937.

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• No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sports, Teamwork, Individuality

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• America was built on rugged individualism, and today that has evolved into a culture of narcissism. But God didn't create you to live for you. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to put aside your selfish ambition.

  Rick Warren

  Life, Jesus, Selfish

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• In our rough and rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft and virtually spineless. Not so! Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self-esteem and dignity. Instead of losing, the gentle gain. Instead of being ripped off and taken advantage of, they come out ahead!

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Self Esteem, Taken, Thinking

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• Perhaps the seeds of redemption lay not just in perseverance, hard work, and rugged individualism. Perhaps they lay in something more fundamental—the simple notion of everyone pitching in and pulling together.

  Daniel James Brown

  Perseverance, Hard Work, Simple

  Daniel James Brown (2013). “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics”, p.123, Penguin

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• One cannot be pessimistic about the West. This is the native home of hope. When it fully learns that cooperation, not rugged individualism, is the quality that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have achieved itself and outlived its origins. Then it has a chance to create a society to match its scenery.

  Wallace Stegner

  Home, Optimistic, Quality

  "Wallace Stegner, the Rural West, and Me" by John McChesney, web.stanford.edu. July 05, 2011.

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• Liberalism is a force truly of the spirit proceeding from the deep realization that economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

  Herbert Hoover

  Wisdom, Political, Realization

  United States. President (1929-1933 : Hoover), Herbert Hoover (1974). “Herbert Hoover: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President”

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• Have a chance to create a society to match its scenery.

  Wallace Stegner

  Chance, Scenery

  Wallace Stegner (2015). “The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West”, p.31, Vintage

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• Call yourself "Colonel" and declare that your fortune was left to you by Dutch burghers from the seventeenth century. Now you're a solid citizen, the embodiment of hard work and rugged individualism. You're no criminal. The criminal is the guy who comes up short, who gets caught, who fails to adopt a respectable cover.

  Luc Sante

  Hard Work, Guy, Criminals

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• The church is challenging such negative cultural elements as superstition, rugged individualism, materialism, hedonism, permissiveness and utilitarianism.

  Francis Arinze

  Challenges, Church, Negative

  "Arinze Sees Fundamentalism Posing Bar to Interfaith Relations". www.beliefnet.com. December 2001.

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