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Studs Terkel Quotes

Everybody's entitled to that forty acres and a mule. You're going to do the work, but you have to have something to work with. If you don't have a job, where do you go from there? You hear people say...

Studs Terkel

Everybody's entitled to that forty acres and a mule. You're going to do the work, but you have to have something to work with. If you don't have a job, where do you go from there? You hear people say...

Tags: bootstraps, entitlements, race, welfare

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

Studs Terkel

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

Tags: beauty, peace

About Author
Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

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

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

Tags: faith

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...

Studs Terkel

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...

Tags: health

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 h...

Studs Terkel

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 h...

Tags: health, hope, community, book

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...

Studs Terkel

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...

Tags: hope, optimism, people, despair

I hope for peace and sanity - it's the same thing.

Studs Terkel

I hope for peace and sanity - it's the same thing.

Tags: hope, peace

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is...

Studs Terkel

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope, because the hope is...

Tags: hope

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...

Studs Terkel

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...

Tags: hope

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

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.

Tags: intelligence, deep, american, people

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. Peo...

Studs Terkel

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. Peo...

Tags: leadership, world, internet, people

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

Studs Terkel

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

Tags: religion

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

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.

Tags: respect, believe, people, envy

How goddamn foolish it is, the war. They's no war in the worth that's worth fightin' for. I don't care where it is. They can't tell me any different. Money, money is the thing that causes it all. I wo...

Studs Terkel

How goddamn foolish it is, the war. They's no war in the worth that's worth fightin' for. I don't care where it is. They can't tell me any different. Money, money is the thing that causes it all. I wo...

Tags: peace, soldiers, war, world war two

To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

Studs Terkel

To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

Tags: observation

I want a language that speaks the truth.

Studs Terkel

I want a language that speaks the truth.

Tags: language, want, speaks