Lewis H. Lapham People Quotations

We are a people captivated by the power and romance of metaphor, forever seeking the invisible through the image of the visible.

What kind of people do we wish to become, and how do we know an American when we see one? Is it possible to pursue a common purpose without a common history or a standard text?

Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history of the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor.

The American oligarchy increasingly has less in common with the American people than it does with the equivalent oligarchies in Germany or Mexico or Japan.

People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.

A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it.