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There are people who eat earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. Then there are people who stand around and watch them eat it. (Softly) Sometimes I think it ain't right to stand and watch them do it.

— Lillian Hellman The Little Foxes (1939)

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More quotes by Lillian Hellman

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

The Little Foxes (1939)

Lives were being ruined and few hands were raised in help. Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?

Scoundrel Time (1976)

For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt.

Watch on the Rhine (1941)

Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent.

Pentimento: A Book of Portraits (1973)

Lonely people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier.

The Autumn Garden (1951)

All Lillian Hellman quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Lillian Hellman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.