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A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
Leonard Bernstein
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the hopeful and optimistic nature of a liberal perspective on life.

Leonard Bernstein's quote celebrates the optimistic outlook associated with liberalism, suggesting that true liberals possess an inherent desire for progress, peace, and a promising future. It encapsulates the ideals of looking forward towards better days and the belief in an endless potential for improvement in society, highlighting a hopeful vision that encompasses all ages.

Themes

LiberalHopeFutureOptimismTranquility

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about political ideologies, one might reference this quote to highlight the positive vision of the future associated with liberal values.

More from Leonard Bernstein

From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining.
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Our most emotionally active life is lived in our dreams, and our cells renew themselves most industriously in sleep. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great; he is free from the experience of hostility; he is a poet, and most like an angel.
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Any great art work … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world - the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.
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The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.
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Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great.
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In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.
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