"The intellectual's ... playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play of the mind is perhaps the only form of play that is not looked upon with the most tender indulgence. His piety is likely to seem nettlesome, if not actually dangerous. And neither quality is considered to contribute very much to the practical business of life."

-- Richard Hofstadter

#Men Quotes #Play Quotes #Luxury Quotes

“...telephone operators now routinely use '80s-babble, chirping, "Have a nice day," the moral equivalent of the smile button.”
“Before I go to bed at night, I ice my face, because it closes your pores and makes a difference in the morning.”
“Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.”
“I'm happy with what I've done but it's a challenge to try to win more.”
“I think; therefore, I am the center of the universe.”
“What we're seeing is an era where governments and huge organizations such as the IOC don't have accountability. They don't have accountability to the athletes they are supposed to be protecting and they don't have accountability to the truth. What we've seen out of Russia is a continual denial, no matter what has been presented. They are still blaming Grigory Rodchenkov as an individual who did this all on his own.”
“In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.”
“Home. One place is just like another, really. Maybe not. But truth is it's all just rock and dirt and people are roughly the same. I was born up there but I'm no stranger here. Have always felt at home everywhere, even in Virginia, where they hate me. Everywhere you go there's nothing but the same rock and dirt and houses and people and deer and birds. They give it all names, but I'm at home everywhere. Odd thing: unpatriotic. I was at home in England. I would be at home in the desert. In Afghanistan or far Typee. All mine, it all belongs to me. My world.”

Source : Jeff Shaara, Michael Shaara (2012). “The Civil War Trilogy 3-Book Boxset (Gods and Generals, The Killer Angels, and The Last Full Measure)”, p.501, Ballantine Books

You may also like:

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Historian
C. Wright Mills
Sociologist
Charles A. Beard
Historian
Christopher Lasch
Historian
Douglas Hofstadter
Professor
Eric Foner
Historian
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd U.S. President
Howard Zinn
Historian
Susan Jacoby
Author