#rio

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#from time to time #liberty #must #patriots #refreshed

Jacques Derrida is a very important thinker and philosopher who has made serious contributions to both philosophy and literary criticism. Roland Barthes is the one I feel most affinity for, and Michel Foucault, well, his writing influenced my novel, 'Middlesex.' ↗

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#both #contributions #criticism #feel #his

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

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#consultation #country #different #hold #lead

Sex is funny and love is serious. ↗

— Stephan Jenkins

#love #love is #serious #sex

I was turning 20 during my first record. Those decade birthdays always kind of cause me, it seems, to reflect, look back, and then look forward. I just was closing this period of my life where I was living in a car and scrambling my whole life to then signing a six-record deal with Atlantic. ↗

— Jewel

#atlantic #back #birthdays #car #cause

I'm a Gemini and I have a lot of different moods. Sometimes I'm very serious and introspective and pensive, but other times I'm completely goofy and girlie. So, I like my songs to cover all my moods. ↗

— Jewel

#cover #different #gemini #goofy #i

Islam expect every Muslim to do this duty, and if we realise our responsibility time will come soon when we shall justify ourselves worthy of a glorious past. ↗

— Muhammad Ali Jinnah

#duty #every #expect #glorious #islam

China has adopted and is implementing its national climate change program. This includes mandatory national targets for reducing energy intensity and discharge of major pollutants and increasing forest coverage and the share of renewable energy for the period of 2005 through 2010. ↗

— Hu Jintao

#change #china #climate #climate change #coverage

Of course the other and more serious way in which it all happens is that one finds in poems and language some quality one appropriates for oneself and wishes to reproduce. ↗

— Robert Fitzgerald

#finds #happens #language #more #oneself