American Convention

Famous quotes containing the words american and/or convention:

    The mystical nature of American consumption accounts for its joylessness. We spend a great deal of time in stores, but if we don’t seem to take much pleasure in our buying, it’s because we’re engaged in the acts of sacrifice and self-definition. Abashed in the presence of expensive merchandise, we recognize ourselves ... as supplicants admitted to a shrine.
    Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)

    Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.
    —United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.