#owe

If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white - which his genes certainly entitled him to do - his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N.A.A.C.P. would be in true crisis. ↗

— Eric Liu

#barack #barack obama #call #carried #certainly

I know many people on the left are suspicious of words like Americanization. To them, it can sound like a cover for white privilege and warmongering. It suggests arrogance and groupthink. But these connotations are not fixed. It is in our power to reshape them by recalling the best of America. ↗

— Eric Liu

#arrogance #best #connotations #cover #fixed

Six decades ago, as Mao's Communists seized power, the question in Washington was, 'Who lost China?' Now, as his capitalist descendants stand astride the world stage and Washington worries about decline, it seems to be, 'Who lost America?' ↗

— Eric Liu

#ago #america #astride #capitalist #china

You cannot mistake Bush's clarity of purpose. He believes in a story about freedom and opportunity that makes his followers feel like they aren't just ticking their days down but are part of something larger than themselves. ↗

— Eric Liu

#believes #bush #cannot #clarity #days

Women like to watch women fight because it makes them feel sort of empowered physically and mentally. They feel kind of jazzed and excited by it. ↗

— Lucy Liu

#empowered #excited #feel #fight #kind

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the present: the time bomb in the cupboard. ↗

— Penelope Lively

#concerned #cupboard #interfere #past #photograph

A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself. ↗

— Titus Livius

#carefully #concealed #end #fraudulent #generally

The result showed that fortune helps the brave. ↗

— Titus Livius

#fortune #helps #result #showed

According to the standard model billions of years ago some little quantum fluctuation, perhaps a slightly lower density of matter, maybe right where we're sitting right now, caused our galaxy to start collapsing around here. ↗

— Seth Lloyd

#ago #around #billions #caused #collapsing

If you wanted to build the most powerful computer you could, you can't do better than including everything in the universe that's potentially available. ↗

— Seth Lloyd

#better #build #computer #could #everything