The gap between ideals and actualities, between dreams and achievements, the gap that can spur strong men to increased exertions, but can break the spirit of others -- this gap is the most conspicuous, continuous land mark in American history. It is conspicuous and continuous not because Americans achieve little, but because they dream grandly. The gap is a standing reproach to Americans; but it marks them off as a special and singularly admirable community among the world's peoples.
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In the 1940s a survey listed the top seven discipline problems in public schools talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, getting out of turn in line, wearing improper clothes, not putting paper in wastebaskets. A 1980s survey lists these top seven drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, assault. (Arson, gang warfare and venereal disease are also-rans.)
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Ronald Reagan has held the two most demeaning jobs in the country; President of the United States and radio broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.
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Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings
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Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society violence punctuated by committee meetings.
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Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.
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Greed is envy with its sleeves rolled up.
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We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge.
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Pessimism is as American as apple pie. Frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese.
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If your job is to leaven ordinary lives with elevating spectacle, be elevating or be gone.
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A society that thinks the choice between ways of living is just a choice between equally eligible 'lifestyles' turns universities into academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind.
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The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.
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Americans are overreachers overreaching is the most admirable of the many American excesses.
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Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.
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It is no longer enough to be lusty. One must be a sexual gourmet.
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The Berlin Wall is the defining achievement of socialism.
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...in the lexicon of the political class, the word 'sacrifice' means that the citizens are supposed to mail even more of their income to Washington so that the political class will not have to sacrifice the pleasure of spending it.
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It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is.
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The phrase 'domestic cat' is an oxymoron.
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The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
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Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues.
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The phrase "domestic cat" is an oxymoron.
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