1980s

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1 of 532

The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.

Glenn Gould

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Gould, Glenn. Commencement address. Commencement ceremony. 6 Nov. 1982, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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2 of 532

The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your senses for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.

Jim Morrison

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Morrison, Jim. Interview. PBS Studios, 1969.

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3 of 532

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.

George Shultz

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Shultz, George. "Moral Principles and Strategic Interests: The Worldwide Movement Toward Democracy." Landon Lecture Series. 14 Apr. 1986, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.

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4 of 532

Introduce the alphabet to a culture and you change its cognitive habits, its social relations, its notions of community, history and religion. Introduce the printing press with movable type, and you do the same. Introduce speed-of-light transmission of images and you make a cultural revolution. Without a vote. Without polemics. Without guerrilla resistance. Here is ideology, pure if not serene. Here is ideology without words, and all the more powerful for their absence. All that is required to make it stick is a population that devoutly believes in the inevitability of progress.

Neil Postman

Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Viking Penguin/Methuen Publishing, 1985, ch. 11.

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5 of 532

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

Italo Calvino

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Original Citation

Calvino, Italo. "Perché leggere i classici? [Why Read the Classics?]" L'Espresso, 28 June 1981.

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Calvino, Italo. Why Read the Classics? Penguin Classics, 2009.

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6 of 532

The trouble
with being best man is, you don't get a chance
to prove it.

Les A. Murray

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Murray, Les A. The Boys Who Stole the Funeral: A Novel Sequence. Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1980.

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7 of 532

You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that.

King Charles III

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King Charles. Speech at the Mansion House. London Planning and Communication Committee's Annual Dinner. 1 Dec. 1987, Mansion House, London, England, UK.

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8 of 532

We're a nation of community, of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary, and unique... A brillant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

George H.W. Bush

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Bush, George H. W. Acceptance address at the Republican National Convention. Republican National Convention. 18 Aug. 1988, New Orleans, LA, USA.

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9 of 532

Consciousness... Is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.

Roger Penrose

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Penrose, Roger. The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics. Oxford University Press, 1989, ch. 10.

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10 of 532

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price of a paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market and you're a part of it. Yeah, you got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I still got a lot to teach you.

Gordon Gekko

Wall Street

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Wall Street. Directed by Oliver Stone, American Entertainment Partners/American Films, 1987.

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11 of 532

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Full Metal Jacket

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Full Metal Jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Natant/Harrier Films, 1987.

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12 of 532

Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.

Richard Dawkins

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Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker. Norton & Company, 1986, ch. 1.

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13 of 532

Oh, life is like that. Sometimes, at the height of our revelries, when our joy is at its zenith, when all is most right with the world, the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.

Ralphie Parker

A Christmas Story

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A Christmas Story. Directed by Bob Clark, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1983.

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14 of 532

Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and find out that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.

El Guapo

Three Amigos!

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Three Amigos. Directed by John Landis, Orion Pictures, 1986.

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15 of 532

Our hair
turns white with our ripening
as though to fly away in some
coming wind, bearing the seed
of what we know.

Wendell Berry

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Berry, Wendell. "Ripening." A Part. North Point Press, 1980.

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16 of 532

In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent."

Stephen Jay Gould

Evolution as Fact and Theory

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Gould, Stephen Jay. "Evolution as Fact and Theory." Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes. W. W. Norton & Company, 1983, ch. 19.

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17 of 532

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

John Updike

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Updike, John. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Knopf, 1989, ch. 3.

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18 of 532

The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be. Our contemplations of the cosmos stir us. There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries.

Carl Sagan

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Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980.

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19 of 532

Now, maybe there's a God above
As for me all I've ever learned from love
Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
But it's not a cry that you're hear tonight
It's not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the light
No, it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen

Hallelujah

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Cohen, Leonard. "Hallelujah." Various Positions. Columbia Records, 1984.

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20 of 532

The truth is in 7th grade, who you are is what other 7th graders say you are. The funny thing is it’s hard to remember the names of the kids you spent so much time trying to impress.

The Wonder Years

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"Square Dance." The Wonder Years, written by Neal Marlens and Carol Black and Todd W. Langen, directed by Tom Moore, season 2, episode 15, The Black/Marlens Company and New World Television, 1989.

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