A child... who has learned from fairy stories to believe that what at first seemed a repulsive, threatening figure can magically c...hange into a most helpful friend is ready to believe that a strange child whom he meets and fears may also be changed from a menace into a desirable companion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master--something that at tim...es strangely wills and works for itself.... If the result be attractive, the World will praise you, who little deserve praise; if it be repulsive, the same World will blame you, who almost as little deserve blame.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom "charitable" souls ke...ep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas. Its hard absolute opt...imism is repulsive to my mind by the menace of fanaticism and intolerance it contains. No doubt one should smile at these things; but, imperfect Esthete, I am no better Philosopher. All claim to special righteousness awakens in me that scorn and anger from which a philosophical mind should be free.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Food has it over sex for variety. Hedonistically, gustatory possibilities are much broader than copulatory ones. Literarily, readi...ng about food is more interesting than reading about sex. The authors of The Physiology of Taste and of Histoire d'O, for example, are writers equally obsessed, but how charming is Brillat-Savarin's obsession, how sickening Reage's! Similarly, how delightful it is to hear someone describe a magnificent meal, or comical to hear a botched one described, whereas listening to the same person describe a seduction is almost invariably boring, if not repulsive. Perhaps the reason for this is that eating is the more social function, sex the more personal, and as such eating shows people in a greater multiplicity of poses, moods, and characters than does sex. Modern psychologists to the contrary, there is more going on at the table than in bed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The attraction of horror is a mental, or even an intellectual, excitement, but the fascination of the repulsive, so noticeable in ...contemporary writing, can spring openly from some rotted substance within our civilization ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Churchill is the very type of a corrupt journalist. There is not a worse prostitute in politics. He himself has written that it's ...unimaginable what can be done in war with the help of lies. He's an utterly amoral repulsive creature. I'm convinced that he has his place of refuge ready beyond the Atlantic. He obviously won't seek sanctuary in Canada. In Canada he'd be beaten up. He'll go to his friends the Yankees. As soon as this damnable winter is over, we'll remedy all that.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If you feed a thousand people you are a nice man with suspicious motives. If you kill a thousand you are a hero. Continue to get t...hem killed by the thousands and you are a great conqueror than which nothing on earth is greater. Oppress them and you are a great ruler. Rob them by law and they are proud and happy if you let them glimpse you occasionally surrounded by the riches that you have trampled out of their hides. You are truly divine if you meet their weakness with the sword to slay and the dogs to tear. The only time you run great risk is when you serve them. The most repulsive thing to all men is gratitude. Men give up property, freedom and even life before they will have the obligation laid on them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »