Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the conflict between rational understanding and emotional attachment to one's country.
Sinclair Lewis expresses a dual perspective on America: while he acknowledges intellectually that no country is superior to another, he emotionally feels a deep pride and belief that America stands out among nations. This underscores the complexity of national identity, where logic and emotion coexist and often conflict, highlighting how feelings can shape our perception of a place despite rational arguments to the contrary.
In practice
In a speech about national identity, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional connection people have with their country.
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.
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.
There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.
The woman's perspective is like the dark side of the moon: it always exists, but it is never exposed, at least not in my culture.
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.
I am a machine, condemned to devour them and then, throw them, in a changed form, on the dunghill of history.
When a gift is difficult to give away, it becomes even more rare and precious, somehow gathering a part of the giver to the gift itself.
It is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding; a bid to have the final word is inherent in all powerful phrase-making.
Inner-life questions are the kind everyone asks, with or without benefit of God-talk: 'Does my life have meaning and purpose?' 'Do I have gifts that the world wants and needs?' 'Whom and what shall I serve?' 'Whom and what can I trust?' 'How can I rise above my fears?'
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