Famous quotes containing the words european and/or americans:
“In verity ... we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?”
—Mary McCarthy (19121989)
“Americans are very friendly and very suspicious, that is
what Americans are and that is what always upsets the
foreigner, who deals with them, they are so friendly
how can they be so suspicious and they are so
suspicious how can they be so friendly but they just
are and that certainly has something to do with their
having tucked their capital, their capitals away.”
—Gertrude Stein (18741946)