You," Said Dr. Yavitch, "are a middle-road liberal, and you haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want -- and what I want now is a drink.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts the indecisiveness of a moderate with the clarity of purpose in a revolutionary mindset.
In this quote, Sinclair Lewis presents a humorous juxtaposition between two types of individuals: the middle-road liberal, who is often perceived as indecisive and lacking clear goals, and the revolutionist, who possesses a singular drive and focus. The punchline emphasizes the revolutionist's straightforward desire for a drink, highlighting how clarity of purpose can be both amusing and grounded in simplicity.
In practice
In a debate about political ideologies, one might quote this to illustrate the contrast between moderation and radical action.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
Why do we spend years using up our bodies to nurture our minds with experience and find our minds turning then to our exhausted bodies for solace?
To delve into history entails, besides the grievance of hard work, the danger that in the depths one may lose one’s scapegoats.
Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself.
The ethic of liberal individualism has so deeply permeated the psyches of blacks... of all classes that we have little support for a political ethic of communalism that promotes the sharing of resources.
Worry implies that we don't quite trust God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.
Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.