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John Leonard Quotes

1939–2008 United States

John Leonard (February 25 1939 – November 5 2008) was an American literary, TV, film and cultural critic.

United States
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Journalists

Also known as: John Leonard, John Leonard (American critic)

Random John Leonard quote

37 quotes

When the state murders, it assumes an authority I refuse to concede: the authority of perfect knowledge in final things.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense.

Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

The life, no matter how traumatic, never explains the work, if the work is any good.

From an international leader in the cause of human rights and democratic values, the U.S. has turned into an unaccountable bully.

In our brave new world, blushing is a form of nostalgia.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

Everybody remembers his or her first magic show.

One advantage of remorse is that it sets the stage for consolation.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

A bohemian imitates the manners of the class below him.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

There are too many ironies in the fire!

The scientist, like the magician, possesses secrets. A secret — expertise — is somehow perceived as antidemocratic, and therefore ought to be unnatural.

Never mind social justice, what happened to habeas corpus? Faith-based globocops police the words in our mouths and the behaviors in our bed while sorehead cable blabbercasters rant them on.

Granted, religion is wishful thinking, but there is no other kind of thinking.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

We are reading for our lives, not performing like seals for some fresh fish.

We are more inclined to shrug than we are to gasp.

Every fall I imagine once again that something wonderful will happen at a party. This is like imagining that the telephone book will prove to be a wonderful novel.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

The words, the style always reflects a habit of mind. And the habit of mind comes in from a different angle.

The culture as a whole is losing its individual notes, its diversity. And this is… it's not only sad. It's devastating.

To be capable of embarrassment is the beginning of moral consciousness. Honor grows from qualms.

Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979)

Everybody is forever saying that the essay is dead. This is always said in essays.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Leonard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.