One would like to say in the aftermath of the 2008 election that everyone lived happily ever after. But the American drama, especially when it involves race, is always more complicated than that.
Frank RichRead
The cruel ambush of 9/11 supposedly 'changed everything,' slapping us back to reality. Yet we are constantly shocked, shocked by the foreseeable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on how major events can drastically alter our perspective but also highlights our tendency to be surprised by predictable outcomes.
Frank Rich's quote points to the profound impact of the 9/11 attacks on society, suggesting that such a traumatic event forced people to confront harsh realities. Despite this awakening, he observes a continual human astonishment at events that, in hindsight, appear predictable or avoidable, hinting at a disconnect between awareness and understanding in human nature.
Themes
9/11RealityShockAwarenessPredictability
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience after national tragedies.
More from Frank Rich
All quotes →I'm always struck by the kids who turn up in New York and LA, and places in between. Chicago. Wanting to do theater, wanting to do independent film. Wanting to break into television or radio.
Frank RichRead
There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht.
Frank RichRead
Similar quotes
In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and metallic as a massive pendulum of iron that swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along.
Alan LightmanRead
He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle for the last time, out into the grounds and into the forest?
J. K. RowlingRead
The Christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it!
George WhitefieldRead
Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal
Jeane KirkpatrickRead
To cut and slash are two different things. Cutting, whatever form of cutting it is, is decisive, with a resolute spirit. Slashing is nothing more than touching the enemy.
Miyamoto MusashiRead
For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand.
Miguel De CervantesRead