A perfect conversation would run much less to brilliant sentences than to unfinished ones. Louis Kronenberger More Quotes by Louis Kronenberger More Quotes From Louis Kronenberger Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week. Louis Kronenberger goal time funny On a very rough-and-ready basis we might define an eccentric as a man who is a law unto himself, and a crank as one who, having determined what the law is, insists on laying it down to others. An eccentric puts ice cream on steak simply because he likes it; should a crank do so, he would endow the act with moral grandeur and straightaway denounce as sinners (or reactionaries) all who failed to follow suit. Cranks, at their most familiar, are a sort of peevish prophets, and it's not enough that they should be in the right; others must also be in the wrong. Louis Kronenberger ice-cream law men There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave. Louis Kronenberger faith believe people Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty. Louis Kronenberger vanity humility facts The trouble with us in America isn't that the poetry of life has turned to prose, but that it has turned to Advertising copy. Louis Kronenberger life funny america The closer and more confidential our relationship with someone, the less we are entitled to ask about what we are not voluntarily told. Louis Kronenberger old-love our-relationship love-relationship In art, there are tears that do often lie too deep for thoughts. Louis Kronenberger tears lying art Individualism is rather like innocence: There must be something unconscious about it. Louis Kronenberger being-single being-yourself individuality One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well. Louis Kronenberger shame sin real She ate so many clams that her stomach rose and fell with the tide. Louis Kronenberger cooking rose food Coyness is a rather comically pathetic fault, a miscalculation in which, by trying to veil the ego, we let it appear stark naked. Louis Kronenberger naked ego trying The fascinating necessarily tends to call a certain attention to itself; the interesting need not. An evening spent with a fascinating person leaves vivid memories; one spent with interesting people has merely a sort of bouquet. Louis Kronenberger memories people interesting Ours must be the first age whose great goal, on a nonmaterial plane, is not fulfillment but adjustment; and perhaps just such a goal has served as maladjustment's weapon. Louis Kronenberger weapons goal age Once you have money, you can quite truthfully affirm that money isn't everything. Louis Kronenberger money-isnt-everything Ours is not so much an age of vulgarity as of vulgarization; everything is tampered with or touched up, or adulterated or watered down, in an effort to make it palatable, in an effort to make it pay. Louis Kronenberger effort age civilization The American Way is so restlessly creative as to be essentially destructive; the American Way is to carry common sense itself almost to the point of madness. Louis Kronenberger common-sense creative way If it is the great delusion of moralists to suppose that all previous ages were less sinful than their own, then it is the great delusion of intellectuals to suppose that all previous ages were less sick. Louis Kronenberger ethics sick age London ... remains a man's city where New York is chiefly a woman's. London has whole streets that cater to men's wants. It has its great solid phalanx of fortress clubs. Louis Kronenberger cities new-york men For young people today things move so fast there is no problem of adjustment. Before you can adjust to A, B has appeared leading C by the hand, and with D in the distance. Louis Kronenberger distance change moving In general, American social life constitutes an evasion of talking to people. Most Americans don't, in any vital sense, get together; they only do things together. Louis Kronenberger together talking people
