Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the conflict between rational understanding and emotional attachment to one's country.
Sinclair Lewis expresses a dual perspective on America: while he acknowledges intellectually that no country is superior to another, he emotionally feels a deep pride and belief that America stands out among nations. This underscores the complexity of national identity, where logic and emotion coexist and often conflict, highlighting how feelings can shape our perception of a place despite rational arguments to the contrary.
In practice
In a speech about national identity, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional connection people have with their country.
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.
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.
There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.
Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
The church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness.
And over your unconsecrated head you'll hear the howling wolves lament their fate and yours the livelong year.
Since I invoke Torah so often, let me state that I don't personally believe in the God it postulates ... I am not religious, nor were the majority of the early builders of Israel believers. Yet their passion for this land stemmed from the Book of Books ... [The Bible is] the single most important book in my life.
You'll see certain Pythagorean whose belief in communism of property goes to such lengths that they pick up anything lying about unguarded, and make off with it without a qualm of conscience as if it had come to them by law.
The only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths.
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