“We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
The Noble Greeks (1993).
Victory Speech http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html (9 November 2016) <br class="br">2010s, 2016, November
“We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
The Noble Greeks (1993).
“America is too great for small dreams.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Context: Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution. But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.
Frederick William Faber (1814–1863) British hymn writer and theologian
The Greatness of God.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Give your best. Settle for nothing less than doing your best for yourself and for others.”
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Think Big (1996), p. 87
Don Soderquist (1934–2016)
Don Soderquist “ The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company https://books.google.com/books?id=mIxwVLXdyjQC&lpg=PR9&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q=Don%20Soderquist&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2005, p. 107. <br class="br">On Leading Well
Mike Huckabee (1955) Arkansas politician
US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee
Haroon
Siddique
Matthew
Weaver
The Guardian
2010-12-01
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cables-executed-mike-huckabee
2010-12-02
regarding leak of 250,000 US diplomatic cables to the website WikiLeaks
“Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance; it's what makes America great!”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
A appearance on The Tonight Show (29 June 1988)
Variant: Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance, it's what makes America great!
“Oh, must we dream our dreams
and have them, too?”
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet
Source: Questions of Travel