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.
In U.S. discourse, immigrants are mostly represented as less than human, a policy problem, or as just that, a category, and categories are prisons.
If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.
Man does not speak because he thinks; he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think.
Americans, it seems to me, tend to protect their children from the harshness of life, in their interest.
Remember, purpose is about giving...All you can do with your life is to give it away in the service of others.
Yes, thou art ever present, power divine; not circumscribed by time, nor fixed by space, confined to altars, nor to temples bound. In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains, in dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee.
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