Before the mind snaps, or the heart breaks, it gather itself like a clock about to strike. It might even be said one pulls himself together to disintegrate. Peter De Vries More Quotes by Peter De Vries More Quotes From Peter De Vries What people believe is a measure of what they suffer. Peter De Vries sufferingbelievepeople A politician is a man who can be verbose in fewer words than anyone else. Peter De Vries politicianpoliticsmen I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school. Peter De Vries summerfunnyschool The idea of a Supreme Being who creates a world in which one creature is designed to eat another in order to subsist, and then pass a law saying, "Thou shalt not kill," is so monstrously, immeasurably, bottomlessly absurd that I am at a loss to understand how mankind has entertained or given it house room all this long. Peter De Vries lawlossorder What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial - or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair. Peter De Vries despairpeopleideas If there's anything I hate it's the word humorist-I feel like countering with the word seriousist. Peter De Vries hatehumorfeels Words fashioned with somewhat over precise diction are like shapes turned out by a cookie cutter. Peter De Vries dictioncookiesshapes I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best -- it's all they'll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money -- provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don't need it. Peter De Vries teenagerinspirationalcountry The writer can only explore the inner space of his characters by perceptively navigating his own. Peter De Vries spacecharacter Celibacy is the worst form of self-abuse. Peter De Vries celibacyabuseself How do you expect mankind to be happy in pairs when it is miserable separately? Peter De Vries pairsmiserablemankind Sex in marriage is like medicine. Three times a day for the first week. Then once a day for another week. Then once every three or four days till the condition clears up. Peter De Vries funny-marriagemedicinesex The trouble with treating people as equals is that the first thing you know they may be doing the same thing to you. Peter De Vries maypeoplefirsts "You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus." "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not." "For children." "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish." "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing." Peter De Vries atheismbelievechildren The tuba is certainly the most intestinal of instruments, the very lower bowel of music. Peter De Vries tubasinstruments I tried to write worse but it was no good; my generalizations came out as before, each more exquisite than the last. I grew discouraged. Peter De Vries discouragedlastswriting The satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive and eventually releases him again for another chance. Peter De Vries another-chancelaughterhumor He resented such questions as people do who have thought a great deal about them. The superficial and slipshod have ready answers, but those looking this complex life straight in the eye acquire a wealth of perception so composed of delicately balanced contradictions that they dread, or resent, the call to couch any part of it in a bland generalization. The vanity (if not outrage) of trying to cage this dance of atoms in a single definition may give the weariness of age with the cry of youth for answers the appearance of boredom. Peter De Vries vanityeyepeople My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too. Peter De Vries hatewaitingfather Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is good for dandruff - it is a palliative rather than a remedy. Peter De Vries tweedcoatssoul
