#convent

When distinction of any kind, even intellectual distinction, is somehow resented as a betrayal of the American spirit of equal opportunity for all, the result must be just this terror of individualistic impulses setting us apart, either above or below our neighbours; just this determination to obey without questioning and to subscribe with passion to the conventions and traditions. The dilemma becomes a very real one: How can this sense of democratic equality be made compatible with respect for exceptional personalities or great minds? How can democracy, as we understand it today, with its iron repression of the free spirit, its monotonous standardisation of everything, learn to cherish an intellectual aristocracy without which any nation runs the risk of becoming a civilisation of the commonplace and the second-rate? ↗

— Harold Edmund Stearns

#civilization #conventions #distinction #equality #individualism

The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones. ↗

— Northrop Frye

#ancient #back #being #convention #due

At first the English were very surprised by our disregarding the Hague Convention. But from 1916 onward they used at least as much poison as we did. ↗

— Otto Hahn

#did #disregarding #english #first #hague

2004 was a great year for Boston! The Patriots won the Super Bowl! Boston hosted its first national political convention! And - the Red Sox won the World Series! ↗

— Thomas Menino

#bowl #convention #first #great #hosted

I've agreed to do several Star Trek conventions this coming year. ↗

— Nichelle Nichols

#coming #conventions #i #several #star

Nothing is so threatening to conventional values as a man who does not want to work or does not want to work at a challenging job, and most people are disturbed if a man in a well- paying job indicates ambivalence or dislike toward it. ↗

— Alice S. Rossi

#challenging #conventional #dislike #disturbed #does

He wore a tiny turquoise stud earring I always associated with Dungeons and Dragons types. Men who own ferrets and think magic tricks are cool. ↗

— Gillian Flynn

#dungeons-and-dragons #ferrets #geeks #nerds #men

I don't think anyone has exhausted the range of sound possible in a conventional rock band, but people do become slaves to their own easiest techniques. ↗

— Steve Albini

#band #become #conventional #easiest #exhausted

Around '93, '94, the conventional wisdom about the Internet was that it was a toy for academics and researchers. So it was very, very underestimated for about two years. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#academics #around #conventional #conventional wisdom #internet

I don't know why people keep banging on about the '60s. I came from a conventional family and I didn't go off with different people - I rather wish I had now, seeing all the fun everyone else was having. ↗

— Jane Birkin

#banging #came #conventional #different #different people