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For most Americans the Constitution had become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
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Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Age: 89 †
Born: 1917
Born: October 15
Died: 2007
Died: February 28
Historian
University Teacher
Columbus
Ohio
Arthur Schlesinger Jr
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
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Bible
Hazy
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Constitution
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More quotes by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The basic human rights documents-the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man-were written by political, not by religious, leaders.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Science and Technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. Expelled from individual consciousness by the rush of change, history finds its revenge by stamping the collective unconscious with habits, values, expectations, dreams. The dialectic between past and future will continue to form our lives.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
What higher obligation does a President have than to explain his intentions to the people and persuade them that the direction he wishes to go is right?
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
What we need is a rebirth of satire, of dissent, of irreverence, of an uncompromising insistence that phoniness is phony and platitudes are platitudinous.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The broad liberal objective is a balanced and flexible mixed economy, thus seeking to occupy that middle ground between capitalism and socialism whose viability has so long been denied by both capitalists and socialists.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Self-righteousness in retrospect is easy--also cheap.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
I trust that a graduate student some day will write a doctoral essay on the influence of the Munich analogy on the subsequent history of the twentieth century. Perhaps in the end he will conclude that the multitude of errors committed in the name of Munich may exceed the original error of 1938.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
In Defense of the World Order . . . U.S. soldiers would have to kill and die.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Total separation of church and state was considered the best safeguard for the health of each. As [Andrew] Jackson explained, in refusing to name a fast day, he feared to 'disturb the security which religion now enjoys in this country, in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.'
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The very discovery of the New world was the by-product of a dietary quest.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
History is, indeed, an argument without end.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future (and, like astrologers, they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next).
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
There is far less to the Presidency, in terms of essential activity, than meets the eye.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Television has spread the habit of instant reaction and stimulated the hope of instant results.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The use of history as therapy means the corruption of history as history.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Expelled from individual consciousness by the rush of change, history finds its revenge by stamping the collective unconsciousness with habits and values.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
I don't think I have made as much of my life as I should have. I should have written more books.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Few secret undertakings ever did any nation any good.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
