| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 9389 |
| QUOTATION: | I want a kinder, gentler nation. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | George Bush (b. 1924), U.S. Republican politician, president. Republican National Convention, New Orleans, August 18, 1988. acceptance speech, New York Times (Aug. 19, 1988).
In her memoirs, What I Saw at the Revolution (1990), speechwriter Peggy Noonan suggests that Bush added the word “gentler” to her original draft. Charlie Chaplin had used a similar form of words at the end of The Great Dictator (1940), when he urged, “More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.” |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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