America13 quotes

“But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

“Agent Hoffman: ‘OK, well, listen, I understand attorney-client privilege. I understand all the legal gamesmanship, and I understand that’s how you make your living, but I’m talking to you about something else, the security of your country. I’m sorry if the way I put it offends you, but we need to know what Abel is telling you. You understand me, Donovan? Don’t go Boy Scout on me. We don’t have a rule book here.’

James Donovan: ‘You’re Agent Hoffman, yeah?’

Agent Hoffman: ‘Yeah.’

James Donovan: ‘German extraction.’

Agent Hoffman: ‘Yeah, so?’

James Donovan: ‘My name’s Donovan. Irish, both sides. Mother and father. I’m Irish and you’re German. But what makes us both Americans? Just one thing. One. Only one. The rule book. We call it the Constitution, and we agree to the rules, and that’s what makes us Americans. That’s all that makes us Americans. So don’t tell me there’s no rule book, and don’t nod at me like that you son of a bitch.’”

“It is a valid question, whether the long frontier shaped Anglo-America, or whether attitudes, prejudices, and ethics brought from Europe shaped the American frontier.”

“To the rider of back roads, nothing shows the tone, the voice of a small town more quickly than the breakfast grill or the five-thirty tavern.”

“With a nearly desperate sense of isolation and a growing suspicion that I lived in an alien land, I took to the open road in search of places where change did not mean ruin, and where time and men and deeds connected.”

“Critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.”

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”

“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

“Trump’s historical function imo is that he exposes any system he’s in. As a real estate investor, he exposed the greed of the banks that lent money to him by playing them for fools. As a TV show host he exposed the cynical clawing ambition of people who work for him by showing how they would step on anyone for a job. As president he has exposed...what America wants to let itself be, what cruelty we will allow as a country. He has also exposed the hypocrisy of Europe and Israel. Trump doesn’t do this intentionally nor does he care about justice. He participates in the evil and by participating, he shows how ugly these systems are.”

“The American project—a phrase you will see again in the chapters to come—consists of the continuing effort, begun with the founding, to demonstrate that human beings can be left free as individuals and families to live their lives as they see fit, coming together voluntarily to solve their joint problems. The polity based on that idea led to a civic culture that was seen as exceptional by all the world. That culture was so widely shared among Americans, that it amounted to a civil religion. To be an American wants to be different from other nationalities, in ways that Americans treasured. That culture is unraveling.”

“I think that most people in my generation have been brought up to think that we don’t and can’t have public goods in this country, and at first I found it deliriously exciting to see ranchers running cattle on federal ground, a crashing together of collectivism and the most iconic image of free Americana—because who on earth is a more ardent socialist than an American cowboy, pushing horns across 640 million acres of shared public land? It made me very happy to think—to have proof—that these things could coexist.”

“For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, and even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it…It seems to me that Montana is a great splash of grandeur. The scale is huge but not overpowering. The land is rich with grass and color, and the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda. Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans…I wanted to stay. But I see that, as usual, love is inarticulate. Montana has a spell on me. It is grandeur and warmth. If Montana had a sea coast, or if I could live away from the sea, I would instantly move there and petition for admission. Of all the states it is my favorite and my love.”

“Writers facing the problem of Texas find themselves floundering in generalities, and I am no exception. Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word…It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery and paradox…But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”