Sarah Vowell

Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all.

— Sarah Vowell

Behind every bad law, a deep fear.

— Sarah Vowell

I seem to have no problem revealing my crush on the man who murdered Lincoln.

— Sarah Vowell

My ideal picture of citizenship will always be an argument, not a sing-along.

— Sarah Vowell

The one time I was an actor, it happened to be in a globally dominant juggernaut. That was lucky.

— Sarah Vowell

Assassins and presidents invite the same basic question: Just who do you think you are?

— Sarah Vowell

“i love reading and am always stuck in one labrinth of letters or other”

— Sarah Vowell

“She is either male property (Mrs.), wannabe male property (Miss), or man-hating harpy (Ms.).”

— Sarah Vowell

You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.

— Sarah Vowell

I no longer drink nearly as much as I used to but, still, my motto is Sine coffea nihil sum. Without coffee,…

— Sarah Vowell

“Cotton says, “If God be the gardener, who shall pluck up what he sets down?” Hear that, Indians? No weeding of the…

— Sarah Vowell

I probably am a cranky writer, but I am actually a fairly nice, normal person. Since I'm a grouchy writer, of course…

— Sarah Vowell

We go in to liberate Cuba, but Cuba still isn't free; we don't really think through what we'll do after the initial…

— Sarah Vowell

The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get…

— Sarah Vowell

That's what I like to call him, "the current president." I find it difficult to say or type his name, George W.…

— Sarah Vowell

After Hiram Bingham built the first church on Oahu the student recalls, "When it was completed some of the natives said among…

— Sarah Vowell

“Honestly, the only question most Americans ask about a new building at this point is basically: Is it a soul-sucking eyesore of…

— Sarah Vowell

“The people who visit the [Lincoln] memorial always look like an advertisement for democracy, so bizarrely, suspiciously diverse that one time I…

— Sarah Vowell

In the U.S.A., we want to sing along with the chorus and ignore the verses, ignore the blues. . . No one…

— Sarah Vowell

“The groundswell of outrage over the invasion of Iraq often cited the preemptive war as a betrayal of American ideals. The subtext…

— Sarah Vowell

In these fast and fickle times, it’s nice to know that there are some things you can always count on: the enduring…

— Sarah Vowell

“In the gravedigger scene in act V, Hamlet looks upon an anonymous skull and jokes that even Alexander the Great decomposed into…

— Sarah Vowell

“The same wakefulness the individual Calvinist was to use to keep watch over his own sins Winthrop and Cotton called for also…

— Sarah Vowell

“In other words, after Winthrop has acquired all his butter firkins, food stirrers, and beer along with six dozen candles, twenty thousand…

— Sarah Vowell

“Another reason I’m intrigued with the hanged of Salem, especially the women, is that a number of them aroused suspicion in the…

— Sarah Vowell

“Protestantism's evolution away from hierarchy and authority has enormous consequences for America and the world. On the one hand, the democratization of…

— Sarah Vowell

“I wish it were different. I wish that we privileged knowledge in politicians, that the ones who know things didn't have to…

— Sarah Vowell

“One night, he left Stephen and me in the arcade and rushed off to a – this hurt my feelings – “real”…

— Sarah Vowell

Until that moment, I hadn't realized that I embarked on the project of touring historic sites and monuments having to do with…

— Sarah Vowell

“…breathing secondhand smoke, being subject to unfair dairy pricing, and not being able to mime (or lap dance), though they are all…

— Sarah Vowell

“We were breathing sooty air. The soot was composed of incinerated glass and steel but also, we knew, incinerated human flesh. When…

— Sarah Vowell

“I waited in vain for someone like me to stand up and say that the only thing those of us who don't…

— Sarah Vowell

But truth be told, I'm not as dour-looking as I would like. I'm stuck with this round, sweetie-pie face, tiny heart-shaped lips,…

— Sarah Vowell

“[Martin Luther King, Jr.] concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the 'loving your enemies' sermon this way: 'So…

— Sarah Vowell

The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government.

— Sarah Vowell

Like Lincoln, I would like to believe the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Then again, he said that before he got…

— Sarah Vowell

The modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top

— Sarah Vowell

“Luther’s point was that, according to Scripture, salvation is not a bake sale:”

— Sarah Vowell

“Like a lot of once devout people who have lost their faith, I had holes the size of heaven and hell in…

— Sarah Vowell

The whole point of Louis Armstrong is that no one can really figure him out. There was a while where I thought…

— Sarah Vowell