American Opera

Famous quotes containing the words american and/or opera:

    “An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.”
    —John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)

    “A pretty air in an opera is prettier there than it could be anywhere else, I suppose, just as an honest man in politics shines more than he would elsewhere.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)