America is a country in which I see the most persistant idealism and the blandest of cynicism and the race is on between its vitality and its decaden…

- Alistair Cooke

People, when they first come to America, whether as travelers or settlers, become aware of a new and agreeable feeling: that the whole country is the…

- Alistair Cooke

To watch an American on a beach, or crowding into a subway, or buying a theatre ticket, or sitting at home with his radio on, tells you something abo…

- Alistair Cooke

The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my du…

- Alistair Cooke

If computers take over, it will serve us right.

- Alistair Cooke

The Scots say that Nature itself dictated that golf should be played by the seashore. Rather, the Scots saw in the eroded sea coasts a cheap battlegr…

- Alistair Cooke

As always, the British especially shudder at the latest American vulgarity, and then they embrace it with enthusiasm two years later

- Alistair Cooke

It used to be said that you had to know what was happening in America because it gave us a glimpse of our future. Today, the rest of America, and aft…

- Alistair Cooke

Although the Jeffersonian Law ("All men are created equal") is the first article of the American faith, the facts of American life have demonstrated …

- Alistair Cooke