Imperative Present

Famous quotes containing the words imperative and/or present:

“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)

“America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.”
—Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865–1923)