... if there are no waving flags and marching songs at the barricades as Walter marches out with his little battalion, it is not b...ecause the battle lacks nobility. On the contrary, he has picked up in his way, still imperfect and wobbly in his small view of human destiny.... He becomes, in spite of those who are too intrigued with despair and hatred of man to see it, King Oedipus refusing to tear out his eyes, but attacking the oracle instead. He is that last Jewish patriot manning his rifle at Warsaw.... He is Anne Frank, still believing in people; he is the nine small heroes of Little Rock; he is Michelangelo creating David and Beethoven bursting forth with the Ninth Symphony. He is all these things because he has finally reached out in his tiny moment and caught that sweet essence which is human dignity, and it shines like the old star-touched dream that is in his eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is c...ommendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Wilson was a visionary who liked to identify himself with "forward-looking man"; Harding ... was as old-fashioned as those wooden ...Indians which used to stand in front of cigar stores.... Wilson thought in terms of the whole world; Harding was for America first. And, finally, whereas Wilson wanted America to exert itself nobly, Harding wanted to give it a rest.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values a...nd dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No one ever promised me it would be easy and it's not. But I also get many rewards from seeing my children grow, make strong decis...ions for themselves, and set out on their own as independent, strong, likeable human beings. And I like who I am becoming, too. Having teenagers has made me more human, more flexible, more humble, more questioning--and, finally it's given me a better sense of humor!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I think that carrying a baby inside of you is like running as fast as you can. It feels like finally letting go and filling yourse...lf up to the widest limits.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Lonesome? God, no! From the day the kids are born, if it's not one thing, it's another. After all those years of being responsible... for them, you finally get to the point where you want to scream: "Fall out of the nest already, you guys, will you? It's time."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of ag...gression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
it is finally as though that thing of monstrous interest were happening in the sky... but the sun is setting and prevents you from seeing itLESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »