Gritty Dirt Band

Famous quotes containing the words dirt and/or band:

    Come hither, all ye empty things,
    Ye bubbles rais’d by breath of Kings;
    Who float upon the tide of state,
    Come hither, and behold your fate.
    Let pride be taught by this rebuke,
    How very mean a thing’s a Duke;
    From all his ill-got honours flung,
    Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung.
    Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

    What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.
    James Baldwin (1924–1987)