If we try to engineer outcomes, if we overturn tradition to make everyone the same, we ruin society. If we upset tradition to allow for an equal shot at the starting gate, everyone wins, except for the charlatans and would be dictators.
BEN STEINThe human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy.
More Ben Stein Quotes
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And now, any of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.
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Politics is a thankless occupation; I have no interest in it at all.
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I am so used to having a comfortable life. What will it be like when I am no longer able to just buy anything I want?
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Wow, bad news. Mr. Obama now hates Israel because the Israelis want to build 1,600 apartments in their own capital city, Jerusalem. Russia hates Israel, too. So do the Europeans. So does Ban Ki-moon, a Korean who is secretary-general of the UN.
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The real stars are wearing body armor in 130-degree heat . . . They’re getting shot at and they don’t have any stunt doubles standing in for them.
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Prime-time network television has become an island without religion in an ever-more-religious America.
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I’ve never liked the idea of just having an office in a college somewhere and teaching classes and going to the library and doing research all day. I’ve never wanted that. The glamorous life is the life that appeals to me.
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I feel as if I’m in on a pass and am damn lucky to have whatever I have. It could all be taken away in a second.
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But when I talk to people who are Darwinists or evolutionists and say, ‘Well, how did life begin’ – they’re… they don’t have an answer. I mean, they have an answer, but it’s a BS answer. It’s an answer that wouldn’t make sense to a small child.
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If there’s a recession, I’d buy stocks. That’s when you make money: when markets are spooked.
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I have talent at playing myself. I don’t have a very broad range, but at playing myself I am a wizard. It’s more than fun; it’s the best job on Earth.
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It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated… it is finished when it surrenders.
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I think, there are many people who are much smarter than I am, and many, many, many who are much harder-working than I am, but in terms of the range of my activities, they’re unique.
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If we are just specks of dust hit by lightning, if we have no spark of God in us, why not just take whatever we can and devil take the hindmost? I mean, we are fools not to do that if there is no right or wrong.
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I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against.
BEN STEIN