Tradition! We scarcely know the word anymore. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them. We scorn nobil...ity in name and in fact. We cling to a bourgeois mediocrity which would make it appear we are all Americans, made in the image and likeness of George Washington.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If George Washington were alive today, what a shining mark he would be for the whole camorra of uplifters, forward-lookers and pro...fessional patriots! He was the Rockefeller of his time, a promoter of stock companies, a land-grabber, an exploiter of mines and timber.... He was not pious. He drank whiskey whenever he felt chilly, and kept a jug of it handy. He knew far more profanity than Scripture, and used and enjoyed it more. He had no belief in the infallible wisdom of the common people, but regarded them as inflammatory dolts and tried to save the Republic from them.... He took no interest in the private morals of his neighbors. Inhabiting these States today, George would be ineligible for any office of honor or profit.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The crude commercialism of America, its materialising spirit, its indifference to the poetical side of things, and its lack of ima...gination and of high unattainable ideals, are entirely due to that country having adopted for its national hero a man who, according to his own confession, was incapable of telling a lie, and it is not too much to say that the story of George Washington and the cherry-tree has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) moved from a legitimate to a charismatic role, reversing the course followed by Washington. Yet there ...were surface similarities in their careers. Both led military rebellions against English monarchs--Cromwell against Charles I, Washington against George III. Each took local militia--the "train bands" of Cromwell, the colonial levies of Washington--and forged professional armies on a national scale. Each infused a new ethos in his troops--a religious spirit in Cromwell's case, a post-colonial American identity in Washington's.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Annie: Dances like Pavaliver, that child. George Grainger: Dances like who?... Annie: Pavaliver--the Russian dancer. Don't be so ignorant.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A Republic! Look in the history of the Earth ... To be the first man--not the Dictator, not the Sylla, but the Washington or the A...ristides, the leader in talent and truth--is next to the Divinity!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There were two unpleasant surprises [about Washington]. One was the inertia of Congress, the length of time it takes to get a comp...licated piece of legislation through ... and the other was the irresponsibility of the press.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
George the first was an honest, dull, German gentleman, as unfit as unwilling to act the part of a king, which is to shine and to ...oppress. Lazy and inactive even in his pleasures, which were therefore lowly sensual. He was coolly intrepid, and indolently benevolent. He was diffident of his own parts, which made him speak little in public, and prefer in his social, which were his favourite, hours the company of wags and buffoons. Even his mistress, the duchess of Kendal, with whom he passed most of his time, and who had all influence over him, was very little above an idiot.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority i...n exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Jenny: I like different music for different things. I like to listen to rock. I like to dance to jazz. George: What do you li...ke to do to Prokofiev? Jenny: Fuck.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »