Baseball, like Pericles' Athens (or any other good society), is simultaneously democratic and aristrocratic. Anyone can enjoy it, but the more you apply yourself, the more you enjoy it.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that baseball embodies both democratic and aristocratic elements, where everyone can partake, but deeper engagement leads to greater enjoyment.
George Will compares baseball to the ideal society of Pericles' Athens, highlighting that baseball is open to all, yet rewards those who invest effort and passion into it. This dual nature reflects a broader truth about life and society: while accessibility is crucial, true fulfillment often requires dedication and hard work, making it both a shared experience and a pursuit of excellence.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of hard work and dedication in achieving success.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
We always try to interpret things in accordance with what we want and not as they are.
The iron chain and the silken cord are both equally bonds.
We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.
As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
A man must ride alternately on the horses of his private and his public nature.
The human person, whose definition serves as the touchstone according to which good must be distinguished from evil, is considered as sacred, in what one might call the ritual sense of the word. It has something of that transcendental majesty which the churches of all times have given to their Gods.
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