The ordinary American – as far as I can tell – knows so much less than he did fifty years ago and has such poor work habits compared with fifty years ago that the average multiplicand of knowledge/capabilities is a much smaller number than it was in 1961.
BEN STEINMy parents, products of the Great Depression, were successful people, but lived in a state of constant fear that my sister and I, and they, would sink into the kind of economic insecurity that their generation knew so well.
More Ben Stein Quotes
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I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution, and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
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Emperor Sid Caesar is gone to eternity himself now. He takes with him the gratitude of every one of us who first learned the relief of laughter from this genuinely great performer.
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Greed is a basic part of animal nature. Being against it is like being against breathing or eating. It means nothing.
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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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If there is no God, why bother to tell the truth? Why not steal?
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Every morning, I get up, get out of bed, and get on my knees and thank God for waking up in America … (She is) the light of the world … A nation of heroes …
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Screaming at children over their grades, especially to the point of the child’s tears, is child abuse, pure and simple. It’s not funny and it’s not good parenting. It is a crushing, scarring, disastrous experience for the child. It isn’t the least bit funny.
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Hollywood is largely about scammers and con men. It was my main livelihood for about 25 years, and the scams were beautiful and ugly, cheap and expensive, but, wow, were there a lot of scammers.
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Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.
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Usually I am not a conspiracy theorist. I don’t believe in the Bilderbergers as a conspiracy or the Trilateralists. But I am certain that the Communists killed JFK. There is a super great book called ‘Legend’ by Edward Jay Epstein that makes it all perfectly clear.
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I love sleeping in a moving car more than sleeping in bed.
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I spend so much time in fear of going broke, and I never have been even remotely close to going broke.
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I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal.
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I don’t believe the most successful people are the ones who got the best grades, got into the best schools, or made the most money.
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Politics is a thankless occupation; I have no interest in it at all.
BEN STEIN