Quote of the Day (Alexis de Tocqueville, on Americans’ Fever for Prosperity)

“It is odd to watch with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue prosperity and how they are ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet are in such a rush to snatch any that come within their reach, as if expecting to stop living before they have relished them. They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose their grip as they hurry after some new delight.”— French diplomat, political scientist, historian, and observer of America Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy in America, translated and edited by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (1835)

Quote of the Day (Robert Morley, on Why ‘Americans Make the Best Fans’)

“Americans make the best fans, perhaps because they always seem to have time on their hands. The native young pound along behind, thrust a cigarette into one’s hand, and are off back to the shop. Worst of all are the temporarily incapacitated who demand you sign the plaster on the fractured limb. I find it well nigh impossible to scratch on plaster of Paris, yet others seem to manage.”—English stage and screen actor (and longtime fixture in British Airways commercials) Robert Morley (1908-1992), The Best of Robert Morley (1981)