Studs Terkel Quotes

67 quotes in 956 categories

• I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.
• I'm not up on the Internet, but I hear that is a democratic possibility. People can connect with each other. I think people are ready…
• My epitaph? My epitaph will be, 'Curiosity did not kill this cat.
• The issue is jobs. You can't get away from it: jobs. Having a buck or two in your pocket and feeling like somebody.
• One day I visited a guy who had made a fortune as a broker. He was sitting in his office with his computer. I hire…
• I'm not a Luddite completely; I believe in refrigerators to cool my martinis, and washing machines because I hate to see women smacking their laundry…
• Last year I picked up the New York Times and there was a story about a kid from Dartmouth who was bragging that he never…
• That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting.
• I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. It's like…
• Work is born in us. We take to it kindly or unkindly. The terms may be easy or harsh, but the contract is binding.
• We use the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hopefully, you're doing well.'…
• I find labels "liberal" and "conservative" of little meaning. Our language has become perverted along with the thoughts of many of us.
• You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.
• Don't be an examiner, be the interested inquirer.
• Reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.
• Think of what's stored in an 80- or a 90-year-old mind. Just marvel at it. You've got to get out this information, this knowledge, because…
• If solace is any sort of succor to someone, that is sufficient. I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have.
• Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too.
• Hope never trickles down. It always springs up.
• We're born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we're born and we die? We're born to live. One is a…

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