Dig deep into its communitarian ethos and it reads more like an America that might have been, an America fervently devoted to the quaint goals of working together and getting along. Of course, this America does exist. It's called Canada. Sarah Vowell More Quotes by Sarah Vowell More Quotes From Sarah Vowell There are people who look forward to spending their sunset years in the sunshine; it is my own retirement dream to await my death indoors, dragging strangers up dusty staircases while coughing up one of the most thrilling phrases in the English language: 'It was on this spot…' My fantasy is to one day become a docent. Sarah Vowell sunset dream retirement The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed. Sarah Vowell mean people ideas A couple of times he called the second he'd finished reading a novel and just had to tell me about it, and I know it sounds hokey and librarianish to say so, but I just swooned when he did that. Sarah Vowell couple reading sound I'm always disappointed when I see the word 'Puritan' tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to Hell. Sarah Vowell brilliant catholic stupid When one of a culture's guiding credos is that "all men are created equal," any person who, say, becomes an expert on, say, nuclear weapons or, say, ecology, i.e., anyone who distinguishes himself through mental excellence, is a nuisance. Sarah Vowell excellence experts men History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between. Sarah Vowell murder natural war In these fast and fickle times, it’s nice to know that there are some things you can always count on: the enduring brilliance of the last page of The Great Gatsby; the near-religious harmonies of the Beach Boys’ “California Girls”; and the lifelong friendship of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Sarah Vowell girl religious beach History is full of really good stories. That's the main reason I got into this racket: I want to make the argument that history is interesting. Sarah Vowell stories want interesting Buffy's high school was built on top of a vortex of evil, the Hellmouth. And whose wasn't? Sarah Vowell vortex evil school We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left. Sarah Vowell individuality mean thinking The modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top Sarah Vowell cacao aztec cafes But I have never had the privilege of unhappiness in Happy Valley. California is about the good life. So a bad life there seems so much worse than a bad life anywhere else. Quality is an obsession there—good food, good wine, good movies, music, weather, cars. Those sound like the right things to shoot for, but the never-ending quality quest is a lot of pressure when you’re uncertain and disorganized and, not least, broker than broke. Some afternoons a person just wants to rent Die Hard, close the curtains, and have Cheerios for lunch. Sarah Vowell good-life lunch wine Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friend has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm . . . At fifteen, I couldn't say two words about the weather or how I was doing, but I could come up with a paragraph or two about the album Charlie Parker with Strings. In high school, I made the first real friends I ever had because one of them came up to me at lunch and started talking about the Cure. Sarah Vowell caring real school No cowboys for Canada. Canada got Mounties instead - Dudley Do-Right, not John Wayne. It's a mind-set of "Here I come to save the day" versus "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker. Sarah Vowell yay cowboy mind Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Robert Lincoln bought a nice ski lodge. Sarah Vowell skis slave nice Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all. Sarah Vowell dear idealist monsters The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government. Sarah Vowell patriot definitions government The people who visit the [Lincoln] memorial always look like an advertisement for democracy, so bizarrely, suspiciously diverse that one time I actually saw a man in a cowboy hat standing there reading the Gettysburg Address next to a Hasidic Jew. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had linked arms with a woman in a burka and a Masai warrior, to belt out ‘It’s a Small World After All,’ flanked by a chorus line of nuns and field-tripping, rainbow-skinned schoolchildren Sarah Vowell warrior reading men You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality. Sarah Vowell mediocrity groups individuality Robert Todd Lincoln, a.k.a. Jinxy McDeath. Sarah Vowell
