Studs Terkel Quotes

• You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.

  Studs Terkel

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• With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, ‘Studs, you’re an optimist.’ I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what’s the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven.

  Studs Terkel

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• Why are we born? We’re born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we’re born and we die? We’re born to live. One is a realist if one hopes.

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• We use the word ‘hope’ perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: ‘I hope it’s a nice day.’ ‘Hopefully, you’re doing well.’ ‘So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.’

  Studs Terkel

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• We are the most powerful nation in the world, but we’re not the only nation in the world. We are not the only people in the world. We are an important people, the wealthiest, the most powerful and, to a great extent, generous. But we are part of the world.

  Studs Terkel

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• That’s why I wrote this book: to show how these people can imbue us with hope. I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. It’s like a tonic.

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• That’s what we’re missing. We’re missing argument. We’re missing debate. We’re missing colloquy. We’re missing all sorts of things. Instead, we’re accepting.

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• Someone who does an act. In a democratic society, you’re supposed to be an activist; that is, you participate. It could be a letter written to an editor.

  Studs Terkel

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• So people are ready. I feel hopeful in that sense.

  Studs Terkel

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  Tags in People, Feel

• Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too.

  Studs Terkel

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• People are ready to say, ‘Yes, we are ready for single-payer health insurance.’ We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have national health insurance. We are the richest in wealth and the poorest in health of all the industrial nations.

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• Nonetheless, do I have respect for people who believe in the hereafter? Of course I do. I might add, perhaps even a touch of envy too, because of the solace.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Respect

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• If solace is any sort of succor to someone, that is sufficient. I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have.

  Studs Terkel

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• I’ve always felt, in all my books, that there’s a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence – providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.

  Studs Terkel

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• I’m not up on the Internet, but I hear that is a democratic possibility. People can connect with each other. I think people are ready for something, but there is no leadership to offer it to them. People are ready to say, ‘Yes, we are part of a world.’

  Studs Terkel

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• I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.

  Studs Terkel

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• I want to praise activists through the years. I praise those of the past as well, to have them honored.

  Studs Terkel

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• I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.

  Studs Terkel

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• I want a language that speaks the truth.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Truth

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• I thought, if ever there were a time to write a book about hope, it’s now.

  Studs Terkel

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  Tags in Time, Thought

Studs Terkel (29)

Birth:	16th May, 1912
Death:	31st October, 2008
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Actor, Author, Broadcaster, Historian

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Today's Anniversary - 22nd November

Births

• 1867 - Joseph Martin McCabe
• 1932 - Robert Vaughan
• 1940 - Terry Gilliam
• 1927 - Nathan Rosenberg
• 1930 - Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall

Deaths

• 1943 - Lorenz Hart
• 1992 - Sterling Price Holloway Jr.
• 1902 - Walter Reed
• 2001 - Mary Kay Ash
• 1996 - Ray Blanton