“The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been.”

— George F. Kennan

On trying to understand Soviet policies, as quoted in The Wise Men (1986) by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas

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George F. Kennan 46

American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and histori… 1904–2005

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 94

“Half or more of the best new work in the last few years has been neither painting nor sculpture.”

Donald Judd (1928–1994) artist

Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 74; Lead paragraph; partly cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/6/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6
Context: Half or more of the best new work in the last few years has been neither painting nor sculpture. Usually it has been related, closely or distantly, to one or the other. The work is diverse, and much in it that is not in painting and sculpture is also diverse. But there are some things that occur nearly in common.

“Alot of people ask me... Where the fuck I've been at the last few years? Shit, I don't know... But I do know I'm back now!”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Underground".
2000s, Relapse (2009)

“I need my anchor because without the anchor, the boat will drift away. I need stability in my life. I need that one place that I can call home. In that home, it feels good. I can rest. I can take off my shoes. I can rest my weary body. We all also have a home within that feels good, where we can rest. For those few minutes, we can close the door and we can say to the world, 'Stand by.' For those few minutes, we can be where we want to be and love that feeling. And in those few minutes, we can look at our Creator and say, 'Thank you for this life. Thank you for what you have given me.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

And feel the thankfulness fill us.
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa July 31, 1989
1980s

“When I was offered the site near the House of Lords... I liked the place so much that I didn't bother to go and see an alternative site in Hyde Park — one lonely sculpture can be lost in a large park. The House of Lords site is quite different. It is next to a path where people walk and it has a few seats where they can sit and contemplate it.”

Henry Moore (1898–1986) English artist

Quoted by Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, in Tate Gallery Catalogues: The Modern British Paintings, drawings and Sculpture, Volume II (Oldbourne Press, London, 1964), p. 481 http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/matrix_engine/content.php?page_id=3689
his remark, concerning the placement of his large sculpture 'Knife Edge – Two Piece', 1962 https://www.parliament.uk/about/art-in-parliament/global/print/?art=S715 - located near the House of Lords.
1955 - 1970

“Our reputation has been hurt very badly in the last few years. We've had a go-it-alone mentality in a world where because of communications and transportation, you should be going exactly in the other direction.”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_6170951
State of America

“There are very few content owners that believe that the existing model will last forever, I think the most forward-thinking ones are looking and saying, 'I'd rather have the first-mover advantage.”

Tim Cook (1960) American business executive

Investing.com http://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/apple-music-hits-6.5-million-paid-users:-tim-cook-366943

“You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1900s, A Free Man's Worship (1903)

“The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man’s complexity and the strength and decency of his longings. Where we can describe, step by step, minute by minute, our not altogether unpleasant struggle to put ourselves into a viable and devout relationship to our beloved and mistaken world.”

John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer

Accepting National Book Award, The Writer (September 1958).

“The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been.”

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George F. Kennan 46

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