Dorothy Day said - and I'm sure that Kathy Kelly would say the same thing - 'I'm working toward a world in which it will be easier for people to behave decently.' Now, think about that: a world in which it will be easier for people to behave decently.

Studs Terkel

Categorized in : Thinking World People

Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.

Studs Terkel

friday dying monday

How come you don't work fourteen hours a day? Your great-great-grandparents did. How come you only work the eight-hour day? Four guys got hanged fighting for the eight-hour day for you.

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eight fighting work

We are living in the United States of Alzheimer's. A whole country has lost its memory. When it can't remember yesterday, a country forgets what it once wanted to be.

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alzheimers memories country

Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better. Interweave all these communities and you really have an America that is back on its feet again. I really think we are gonna have to reassess what constitutes a 'hero'.

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responsibility hero thinking

Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits.

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vision spirit jobs

Ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things, and that's what it's all about. They must count.

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capable ordinary people

Think of what's stored in an 80- or a 90-year-old mind. Just marvel at it. You've got to get out this information, this knowledge, because you've got something to pass on. There'll be nobody like you ever again. Make the most of every molecule you've got as long as you've got a second to go.

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years knowledge thinking

I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.

Studs Terkel

differences want people

Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far.

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phones government gone

More and more we are into communications; and less and less into communication.

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communication

Work is a search for daily meaning

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daily-bread wells bread

Reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.

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reading exercise book

Hope never trickles down. It always springs up.

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trickle-down spring

To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

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triumph survival enough

The trouble with censorship is that once it starts it is hard to stop. Just about every book contains something that someone objects to.

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censorship trouble book

That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting.

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debate argument missing-you

I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. It's like a tonic.

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health community action

What I bring to the interview is respect. The person recognizes that you respect them because you're listening. Because you're listening, they feel good about talking to you. When someone tells me a thing that happened, what do I feel inside? I want to get the story out. It's for the person who reads it to have the feeling . . . In most cases the person I encounter is not a celebrity; rather the ordinary person. "Ordinary" is a word I loathe. It has a patronizing air. I have come across ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. (p. 176)

Studs Terkel

air talking people

I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.

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grace want beauty

I find labels "liberal" and "conservative" of little meaning. Our language has become perverted along with the thoughts of many of us.

Studs Terkel

labels perspective littles