Studs Terkel Quotes

• I want a language that speaks the truth.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Language

• I thought, if ever there were a time to write a book about hope, it’s now.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time, Thought

• But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Active, Happens

• I hope for peace and sanity – it’s the same thing.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hope, Peace

• Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It’s the most theatrically corrupt.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in American, Corrupt

• I hope that memory is valued – that we do not lose memory.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Memory

  Tags in Hope

• I always love to quote Albert Einstein because nobody dares contradict him.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Love

• All the other books ask, ‘What’s it like?’ What was World War II like for the young kid at Normandy, or what is work like for a woman having a job for the first time in her life? What’s it like to be black or white?

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Books

• 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 for us to survive as a human species. That’s very realistic.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hope

• I want to praise activists through the years. I praise those of the past as well, to have them honored.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Praise

• 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

  Topics in Respect

  Tags in People

• I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Books

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

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Religion

• 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. People are ready to say, ‘Yes, we are part of a world.’

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Internet

• 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 wealth and the poorest in health of all the industrial nations.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

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

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Peace

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sort

• That’s what we’re missing. We’re missing argument. We’re missing debate. We’re missing colloquy. We’re missing all sorts of things. Instead, we’re accepting.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Argument, Debate

• So people are ready. I feel hopeful in that sense.

  Studs Terkel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Feel

Studs Terkel (29)

Birth:	16th May, 1912
Death:	31st October, 2008
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Actor, Author, Broadcaster, Historian

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Today's Anniversary - 13th May

Births

• 1986 - Robert Pattinson
• 1950 - Stevie Wonder
• 1930 - Mike Gravel
• 1978 - Barry Zito
• 1977 - Samantha Morton

Deaths

• 1878 - Joseph Henry
• 1916 - Sholem Aleichem
• 1965 - Martin Buber
• 1999 - Meg Greenfield
• 1809 - Beilby Porteus