Nancy Gibbs Quotes
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The typical white American woman in 1800 gave birth seven times; by 1900, the average was down to 3.5.
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America's presidents tend to die young. Maybe it is in the nature of the men who reach such heights, or of the job once they attain it.
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High school is a haunted house in April, when seniors act up because the end is near. Even those who hate school sometimes cling to the devil they know. And for the kids who love it, the goodbyes are hard to think about.
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I live in a dumb house. Which is not to say that I don't love its quirky charm, its drafty windows and leaky fireplaces and an electrical system that protests when too many people are trying to vacuum and microwave at the same time. But charm is not always user-friendly.
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The crossroads of science and politics is a dodgy place.
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Most professional women I know - myself included - long since gave up looking for a rulebook or a roadmap; we make it up as we go along. Every day presents a new choice, a new challenge, which makes long-term career planning seem like an especially abstract exercise.
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Terror works like a musical composition, so many instruments, all in tune, playing perfectly together to create their desired effect. Sorrow and horror and fear.
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The Reverend Jeremiah Wright would baptize Obama, perform his marriage to Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, baptize their daughters, and draw him into the raucous, restless family of faith that Obama had never known before.
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It is actually the neuroscientists and evolutionists who do the best job of explaining the reasons behind the most unreasonable behavior.
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When I was coming out of college, storytelling was very much something you did with pencil and paper, so the technological platform versatility, I think, is really valuable.
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Making distinctions is part of learning. So is making mistakes.
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Professor Obama has at least talked to us like we're adults.
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The real luxury travel of the modern age is not through space; it's through time.
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In 2001, President George W. Bush was condemned for politicizing science with his decision to limit federal funding for stem-cell research; in 2009 President Obama was praised for reversing it, even though his decision was arguably just as political.
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Members of royal families are born into a world of indulgence and entitlement, and the princelings who grow up that way may never have to develop any discipline.
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Hillary Clinton wants to leave behind No Child Left Behind.
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I come from a family of teachers, and I believe ideas matter; the good ones deserve reverence, and the bad ones, defiance.
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High achievers, we imagine, were wired for greatness from birth. But then you have to wonder why, over time, natural talent seems to ignite in some people and dim in others.
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After 9/11, whatever the evidence of intelligence failures, many people still saw that attack as almost unimaginable, so brutal and brazen an assault.
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Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual.
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It's always been a luxury to be able to hop a plane to Paris, to Venice, to the Grand Canyon.
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We will never know if any other president approached Nixon in paranoia, profanity or potential criminality, since only his conversations were captured, subpoenaed and ultimately released on the front pages of newspapers.
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If anything, the power of the cover of 'Time' has increased as the media landscape has atomized.
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The days of the Pentagon Papers debates seem long past, when a sudden transparency yielded insight into fights over war and peace and freedom and security; the transparency afforded by Twitter and Facebook yields insights that extend no further than a lawmaker's boundless narcissism and a culture's pitiless prurience.