13 quotes
American novelist (1933–2018)
“It is not our high purposes alone that make us moving creatures, but our humble needs and cravings.”
"In America everything goes and nothing matters, while in Europe nothing goes and everything matters."
on Culture
"Not to be rich, not to be famous, not to be mighty, not even to be happy, but to be civilized--that was the dream of his life."
on Life
"This is what you know about someone you have to hate: he charges you with his crime and castigates himself in you."
on Psychology
"It's human to have a secret, but it's just as human to reveal it sooner or later."
on Identity
"He was trying hard to continue to exist as himself despite the unlikeliness of everything."
"Simple is never that simple."
on Philosophy
"For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit."
on Discipline
"I was still too much of a fledgling with people to understand that, in the long run, nobody is a picnic and that I was no picnic myself."
on Self Awareness
"Old age isn't a battle old age is a massacre."
"You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn't annihilate human nature."
"The tragedy of the man not set up for tragedy—that is every man's tragedy."
"other people's weakness can destroy you just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength."
on Character
