You," Said Dr. Yavitch, "are a middle-road liberal, and you haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want -- and what I want now is a drink.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts the indecisiveness of a moderate with the clarity of purpose in a revolutionary mindset.
In this quote, Sinclair Lewis presents a humorous juxtaposition between two types of individuals: the middle-road liberal, who is often perceived as indecisive and lacking clear goals, and the revolutionist, who possesses a singular drive and focus. The punchline emphasizes the revolutionist's straightforward desire for a drink, highlighting how clarity of purpose can be both amusing and grounded in simplicity.
In practice
In a debate about political ideologies, one might quote this to illustrate the contrast between moderation and radical action.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
Without awareness of bodily feeling and attitude, a person becomes split into a disembodied spirit and a disenchanted body.
Numberless marks does man bear in his soul, that he is fallen and estranged from God; but nothing gives a greater proof thereof, than that backwardness, which every one finds within himself, to the duty of praise and thanksgiving.
I'm more alarmed by people reacting violently to the violence in my films than I am by the violence in films.
But the Emperor has nothing at all on!
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven: see yourself in your Father's palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as celestial joys: having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the angels.
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