SaturdayJul 04, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Alistair Cooke KBE (November 20, 1908 - March 30, 2004) was a British-American journalist and broadcaster.
Born in England, he became a naturalized American citizen, and lived in New York City with his family for most of his adult life.
To watch an American on a beach or crowding into a subway, or buying a theater ticket, or sitting at home with his radio on, tells you something about one aspect of the American character: the capacity to withstand a great deal of outside interference, so to speak; a willing acceptance of frenzy which though its never self-conscious, amounts o a willingness to let other people have and assert their own lively, and even offensive, character. They are a tough race in this.
A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it.
[In 1889] the last big tract of Indian land was declared open for settlement, in Oklahoma. The claimants and the speculators mounted their horses and lined up like trotters waiting for a starting gun. The itchy ones jumped the gun and were ever after known as Soonersand Oklahoma was thereafter called the Sooner State.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
Terms of use and copyrights
