"What is the essence of America? The essence of America is finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from."

Marilyn Vos Savant Journalism See all quotes by Marilyn Vos Savant →

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“Parade Archive back issues of Parade, including Ask Marilyn”

“If your head tells you one thing and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart.”

“The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth.”

“Think of a hypothesis as a card. A theory is a house made of hypotheses.”

“The original answer defines certain conditions, Anything else is a different question.”

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inn…"

— José Martí

Literature1853–1895

#freedom

"There is no such thing as free lunch, and even if there were, there’d be no guarantee against indigestion."

— John Allen Paulos

Mathematics1945

#freedom

"The Age of Empty Freedom ... does not know that man must first through labour, industry, and art, learn how to know; but it has a certain fixed standard for all conceptions, and an established Common …"

— Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Philosophy1762–1814

#knowledge

"We have been keeping the peace in the Asia-Pacific theater for decades now, and the essence of the rebalance is to keep that peace and stability going, of which we have been a pivotal part. You ask ab…"

— アシュトン・カーター

#war