“I thought about the hours we spent practicing increasingly complex math problems. He taught me that lack of knowledge and lack of intelligence were not the same. The former could be remedied with a little patience and a lot of… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“lack of knowledge and lack of intelligence were not the same. The former could be remedied with a little patience and a lot of hard work. And the latter? “Well, I guess you’re up shit creek without a paddle.” — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“Wed don't need to live like the elites of California, New York, or Washington, D.C. We don't need to work a hundred hours a… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“Within two generations, the transplanted hillbillies had largely caught up to the native population in terms of income and poverty level.” — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“Powerful people sometimes do things to help people like me without really understanding people like me.” — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“Research does reveal a genetic disposition to substance abuse, but those who believe their addiction is a disease show less of an inclination to… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“the first impulse is escape, but people who lurch toward the exit rarely choose the right door.” — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“was my first indication that the policies of Mamaw’s “party of the working man”—the Democrats—weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Political scientists… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“A young man was sitting at home when a terrible rainstorm began. Within hours, the man’s house began to flood, and someone came to… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“As a culture, we had no heroes. Certainly not any politician--Barack Obama was then the most admired man in America (and likely still is),… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“To this day, being able to “take advantage” of someone is the measure in my mind of having a parent. For me and Lindsay,… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“As one book, Appalachian Odyssey, notes about the influx of hill people to Detroit: “It was not simply that the Appalachian migrants, as rural… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“As a 2011 Brookings Institution study found, “compared to 2000, residents of extreme-poverty neighborhoods in 2005–09 were more likely to be white, native-born, high… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“There was, and still is, a sense that those who make it are of two varieties. The first are lucky: They come from wealthy… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“We spend to pretend that we’re upper-class. And when the dust clears—when bankruptcy hits or a family member bails us out of our stupidity—there’s… — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
“Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Chaos begets chaos. Instability begets instability.” — J.D. Vance Copy Share Image
