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 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 am about to vote. I am about to do something that human beings are rarely allowed to do. I am doing something that did not exist until America.
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I thought that all of the sacrifices and blessings of the whole history of mankind have devolved upon me. Thank you, God.
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The scientific community says that if you even mention God as causes of anything scientific, you’re gone.
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I am scared of running out of money.
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My pals, such as they are, in Hollywood, ask me why I love to travel to D.C. so much, why it’s a vacation destination for me. I say, ‘Because I sometimes have perfect days there.’
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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.
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If there are finer beings than German short hairs, I don’t know what they are. In their eyes is peace.
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I think a snob would be a person who thinks he is entitled; he has good things in his life and is entitled to them.
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What’s a good investment? Go home from work early and spend the afternoon throwing a ball around with your son.
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Science should always be in the business of attempting to disprove itself.
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When I seemed to be irritable or sad, my father would quote the learned Dr. Knight, and then say, ‘Just go to sleep.’ Like all smart aleck kids, I thought the advice was silly. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized just how smart Knight was.
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Americans are terrified because so many of them have been laid off in recent years and months and they fear that they may be next. Even if they have not been laid off or have not known anyone laid off, they definitely know someone who has lost his home.
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No one will do it for you.
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Neo-Darwinists ask us to believe in things not seen. We’re not supposed to have an established religion in America, but we do, and it’s called Darwinism .
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I don’t consider an actor a star if he’s paid $20 million and grimaces in front of the camera and has a stunt man stand in for him. They may be fine actors, but they’re not role models.
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