My family's lives were not on television, not in books, not even comic books. There was a myth of the poor in this country, but it... did not include us, no matter how hard I tried to squeeze us in. There was an idea of the good poor--hard-working, ragged but clean, and intrinsically honorable. I understood that we were the bad poor ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a certain kind of person who is so dominated by the desire to be loved for himself alone that he has constantly to test t...hose around him by tiresome behavior; what he says and does must be admired, not because it is intrinsically admirable, but because it is his remark, his act. Does not this explain a good deal of avant-garde art?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal... bonds--we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In spite of the fact that religion looks backward to revealed truth while science looks forward to new vistas and discoveries, bot...h activities produce a sense of awe and a curious mixture of humility and arrogance in their practitioners. All great scientists are inspired by the subtlety and beauty of the natural world that they are seeking to understand. Each new subatomic particle, every unexpected object, produces delight and wonderment. In constructing their theories, physicists are frequently guided by arcane concepts of elegance in the belief that the universe is intrinsically beautiful.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Yes, but I do not travel to find comfortable, rich, and hospitable people, or clear sky, or ingots that cost too much. But if ther...e were any magnet that would point to the countries and houses where are the persons who are intrinsically rich and powerful, I would sell all, and buy it, and put myself on the road to-day.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is nothing intrinsically better about a child who happily bounces off to school the first day and a child who is wary, watch...ful, and takes a longer time to separate from his parents and join the group. Neither one nor the other is smarter, better adjusted, or destined for a better life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Put shortly, these are the two views, then. One, that man is intrinsically good, spoilt by circumstance; and the other that he is ...intrinsically limited, but disciplined by order and tradition to something fairly decent. To the one party man's nature is like a well, to the other like a bucket. The view which regards him like a well, a reservoir full of possibilities, I call the romantic; the one which regards him as a very finite and fixed creature, I call the classical.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One man isn't any better than another, not because they are equal, but because they are intrinsically other, that there is no term... of comparison.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is intrinsically a more interesting country, but because no one really be...longs there any more than I do. We are all there together in its wholly excellent vacuum.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What ails it, intrinsically, is a dearth of intellectual audacity and of aesthetic passion. Running through it, and characterizing... the work of almost every man and woman producing it, there is an unescapable suggestion of the old Puritan suspicion of the fine arts as such--of the doctrine that they offer fit asylum for good citizens only when some ulterior and superior purpose is carried into them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »