To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist--the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oi...l one must put with one's vinegar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"If Washington were President now, he would have to learn our ways or lose his next election. Only fools and theorists imagine tha...t our society can be handled with gloves or long poles. One must make one's self a part of it. If virtue won't answer our purpose, we must use vice, or our opponents will put us out of office, and this was as true in Washington's day as it is now, and always will be."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Everyone Tarrou set eyes on had that vacant gaze, and was visibly suffering from the complete break with all that life had meant t...o him. And since they could not be thinking of their death all the time, they thought of nothing... "For really to think about someone means thinking about that person every minute of the day, without letting one's thoughts be diverted by anything; by meals, by a fly that settles on someone's cheek, by household duties, or by a sudden itch somewhere. But there are always flies and itches. That's why life is difficult to live."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The bourgeoisie loves so-called "positive" types and novels with happy endings since they lull one into thinking that it is fine t...o simultaneously acquire capital and maintain one's innocence, to be a beast and still be happy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The museum is full of interesting things. All kinds of paintings are there. And then paintings too thick to put in a frame, that t...hey call sculpture. And then there are spectators. with their scorecards, rooting for culture. And spectators of the spectators, looking for love's introduction. And art students taking notes. And old women trying to remember the past. And old men with too much to forget. And tourists, thinking that a museum represents a city. And loafers so poor, they study their soberness here.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... every woman's organization recognizes that reformers are far more common than feminists, that the passion to look after your f...ellow man, and especially woman, to do good to her in your way is far more common than the desire to put into every one's hand the power to look after themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A low self-love in the parent desires that his child should repeat his character and fortune; an expectation which the child, if j...ustice is done him, will nobly disappoint. By working on the theory that this resemblance exists, we shall do what in us lies to defeat his proper promise and produce the ordinary and mediocre. I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another man you. One's enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul... to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One's enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither ...of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
During the years 1945-1965 (I am referring to Europe), there was a certain way of thinking correctly, a certain style of political... discourse, a certain ethics of the intellectual. One had to be on familiar terms with Marx, not let one's dreams stray too far from Freud.... These were the ... requirements that made the strange occupation of writing and speaking a measure of truth about oneself and one's time acceptable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »