#convention

When distinction of any kind, even intellectual distinction, is somehow resented as a betrayal of the American spirit of equal opportunity for all, the result must be just this terror of individualistic impulses setting us apart, either above or below our neighbours; just this determination to obey without questioning and to subscribe with passion to the conventions and traditions. The dilemma becomes a very real one: How can this sense of democratic equality be made compatible with respect for exceptional personalities or great minds? How can democracy, as we understand it today, with its iron repression of the free spirit, its monotonous standardisation of everything, learn to cherish an intellectual aristocracy without which any nation runs the risk of becoming a civilisation of the commonplace and the second-rate? ↗

— Harold Edmund Stearns

#civilization #conventions #distinction #equality #individualism

I think it is probably more important to attend specialized conventions for a journeyman writer than any other, but it's useful at all stages of a career, if for nothing else, to find out how the industry is working at any given time. ↗

— Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

#attend #career #conventions #else #find

Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions - and some are - attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing. ↗

— Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

#break #conventions #isolation #necessary #nice

Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man's life if he has the weight and cares about the words. ↗

— Archibald MacLeish

#cares #conventional #conventional wisdom #either #football

A lot was happening, plus there were an enormous number of people in the industry that were going to conventions, so it was a pretty fun time. Also there was a lot of controversy and I was at the forefront of some of that. ↗

— Todd McFarlane

#controversy #conventions #enormous #forefront #fun

The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with. ↗

— Golda Meir

#conventional #dealing #history #knowing #modern

Anyway, in the mid 80's I was spending a fortune buying old Golden Age books from the late 30's and 40's and I was making personal appearances at a lot of sci fi and comic book conventions all around the country here so that I could find books for my collection. ↗

— Bill Mumy

#anyway #appearances #around #book #books

Fear is a problem with film music and films; people want to be conventional, and there's more commercialism today. If you are not daring in your art, you're bankrupt. ↗

— Alex North

#bankrupt #commercialism #conventional #daring #fear

The bravest person I've ever met was a young boy going through massive amounts of treatment for a very rare, complex and unpleasant disease. I last saw him at a Discworld convention, where he chose to take part in a game as an assassin. He died not long afterwards, and I wish I had his fortitude and sense of style. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#assassin #boy #bravest #chose #complex

Increased and better screening for explosives is necessary - and Congress should fund it and TSA should implement it as quickly as possible - however that screening doesn't reduce the risk posed by a trained terrorist with an unconventional weapon. ↗

— Dave Reichert

#congress #explosives #fund #however #implement