#am

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#america #become #book #criminal #i

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#conquest #deeply #every #mind #more

Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#america #continue #european #interferences #objects

One question in my mind, which I hardly dare mention in public, is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world. Patriotism is rampant in war and there are some good things about it. Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family, pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people. War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them to be ready to die for it. At no time do people work so well together to achieve the same goal as they do in wartime. Maybe that's enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue. If only I could get out of my mind the most patriotic people who ever lived, the Nazi Germans. ↗

— Andy Rooney

#nazi #patriotism #pride #virtue #war

Since the day he came into office, President Bush has worked to gut more than 34 years of hard work by weakening many of our Nation's standing environmental laws, some of which were signed into law by his father. ↗

— Jim Jeffords

#came #day #environmental #father #gut

There was no actual person who was James Bond, despite all the books. ↗

— Terence Young

#bond #books #despite #james #james bond

Christians should put survival of the planet ahead of national security...Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with Christ- and we are in communion with all people...The fact that the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia are our brothers and sisters is not obvious. People kill each other by the thousands and do not see themselves as brothers and sisters. If we want to be real peace-makers, national security cannot be our primary concern. Our primary concern should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people. Whether we are Russians, Iraqis, Ethiopians, or North Americans, we belong to the same human family that God loves. And we have to start taking some risks- not just individually, but risks of a more global quality, risks to let other people develop their own independence, risks to share our wealth with others and invite refugees to our country, risks to offer sanctuary- because we are people of God ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#communion #global-responsibility #humanity-national-security #family

3) Saturday night is the official meeting night of Penny Lane's Lonely Hearts Club. Attendance is mandatory. Exceptions are for family emergencies and bad hair days only. ↗

— Elizabeth Eulberg

#rules #family

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#am #continuing #expressing #feel #french

Literature that keeps employing new linguistic and formal modes of expression to draft a panorama of society as a whole while at the same time exposing it, tearing the masks from its face - for me that would be deserving of an award. ↗

— Elfriede Jelinek

#deserving #draft #employing #exposing #expression