83 quotes
I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.
People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
Nobody in this land, certainly no Christian, can accept hating on a full-time basis; it is apt to reflect back on the hater.
How I Grew (1987)
I combine concrete cynicism with a sort of vague optimism.
She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains.
The Group (1963)
You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.
The Group (1963)
We are a nation of twenty million bathrooms, with a humanist in every tub.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
Life for the European is a career; for the American, it is a hazard.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.
Comment about Lillian Hellman in a televised interview (1979)
Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
You never learn a language unless you use it.
Cannibals and Missionaries (1979)
As subjects, we all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
If you want to be your own master, his father used to say, always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it.
Birds of America (1971)
To be disesteemed by people you don’t have much respect for is not the worst fate.
The immense popularity of American movies abroad demonstrates that Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
An unrectified case of injustice has a terrible way of lingering, restlessly, in the social atmosphere like an unfinished equation.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
If someone tells you he is going to make "a realistic decision," you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
The rationalist mind has always had its doubts about Venice. The watery city receives a dry inspection, as though it were a myth for the credulous — poets and honeymooners.
Venice Observed (1956)
In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.
Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)