#eric

Princes always are always happy to see developing among their subjects the taste for agreeable arts and for superfluities which do not result in the export of money. For quite apart from the fact that with these they nourish that spiritual pettiness so appropriate for servitude, they know very well that all the needs which people give themselves are so many chains binding them. When Alexander wished to keep the Ichthyophagi dependent on him, he forced them to abandon fishing and to nourish themselves on foods common to other people. And no one has been able to subjugate the savages in America, who go around quite naked and live only from what their hunting provides. In fact, what yoke could be imposed on men who have no need of anything? ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#america #rulers #art

I'm not such a big star. I am just a little planet. In Spain, people don't put so much attention on the star system. But here in America, I can feel it. Mostly, people are very, very nice. But there are also a bunch of fanatics behind the stars. ↗

— Antonio Banderas

#am #america #attention #behind #big

Are you in any way qualified? Yes? No? It doesn't matter. In America, "Qualification" is simply an attitude. I've adopted it. So, yes. I am qualified. ↗

— Eugene Mirman

#attitude #humor #attitude

The country and culture commonly known as "America" had had a badly split personality all through its history. Its overt laws were almost always puritanical for a people whose covert behavior tended to be Rabelaisian; its major religions were all Apollonian in varying degrees---its religious revivals were often hysterical in a fashion almost Dionysian. ↗

— Robert A. Heinlein

#religion #religion

You trust me?" Eric sounded surprised. "Yes." "That's . . . crazy, Sookie. ↗

— Charlaine Harris

#sookie-eric #trust

I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#perceptive #travel #perception

Why did the Articles [of Confederation] fail so completely? Most historians believe the founding fathers spent a great deal of their first constitutional convention drafting the delaration of independence and only realized on July 3rd the Articles were also due. ↗

— Jon Stewart

#confederation #constitution #failure #independence

So the American government lied to the Native Americans for many, many years, and then President Clinton lied about a relationship, and everyone was surprised! A little naïve, I feel! ↗

— Eddie Izzard

#bill-clinton #clinton #lying #native-americans #president

It will take time to restore chaos ↗

— George W. Bush

#bush #george-bush #idiot #president #president

I'm a bit retarded, like most Americans. ↗

— Henry Miller

#cancer