Famous quotes containing the words american, birth and/or control:
“Smoking ... is downright dangerous. Most people who smoke will eventually contract a fatal disease and die. But they dont brag about it, do they? Most people who ski, play professional football or drive race cars, will not dieat least not in the actand yet they are the ones with the glamorous images, the expensive equipment and the mythic proportions. Why this should be I cannot say, unless it is simply that the average American does not know a daredevil when he sees one.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mindthe mind of a fighterin which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree mans first beginning.”
—Eric Hoffer (19021983)
“For the mother who has opted to stay home, the question remains: Having perfected her role as a caretaker, can she abdicate control to less practiced individuals? Having put all her identity eggs in one basket, can she hand over the basket freely? Having put aside her own ambitions, can she resist imposing them on her children? And having set one example, can she teach another?”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)