Everyone finds justification for his or her views in logic and analysis, but a personal philosophy often emerges from some archaic part of the mind, an early idea of how the world should be.
George PackerRead
Even while writing about foreign places, I have been in a way writing about America, because that's the subject that interests me the most. I'm attached to it, critical, but it's definitely my country, and maybe even more so when I'm overseas.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The author expresses that his experiences abroad are still intrinsically linked to his understanding of America.
In this quote, George Packer reflects on the complex relationship he has with his home country, America, as he writes about foreign places. He suggests that regardless of where he travels, his perspective is always colored by his identity as an American, revealing both a sense of attachment and critical reflection on his homeland, which becomes more prominent when he is away from it.
Themes
AmericaIdentityTravelAttachmentCriticism
In practice
Example use cases
Opening a speech about cultural observations abroad.
More from George Packer
All quotes βIdeology knows the answer before the question has been asked. Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.
George PackerRead
At the heart of the matter is a battle between wish and fear. Fear generally proves stronger than a wish, but it leaves a taste of disappointment on the tongue.
George PackerRead
As America has grown less economically equal, a citizen's ability to move upward has fallen behind that of citizens in other Western democracies. We are no longer the country where anyone can become anything.
George PackerRead
The invisibility of work and workers in the digital age is as consequential as the rise of the assembly line and, later, the service economy.
George PackerRead
Abstract sympathy with the working class as an economic entity is easy, but the feeling can vanish on contact with actual members of the group, who often arrive with disturbing beliefs and powerful resentments - who might not sound or look like people urban progressives want to know.
George PackerRead
Similar quotes
Fate's arrow, when expected, travels slow.
Dante AlighieriRead
A Christian should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence, but on the love of God which prompts him to do these things.
John Of The CrossRead
The worshiper is the father of the gods.
H. L. MenckenRead
I think every person either inherits or eventually makes up their own idea of what they are and who they are and what caused the world to be, and it seems to me that these stories of creation myth, adopted by different cultures - most of them are less insightful than the stories made up by individual poets and writers.
Marvin MinskyRead
The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal.
Walter LippmannRead