Someone who gossips well has a reputation for being good company or even a wit, never for being a gossip. Louis Kronenberger More Quotes by Louis Kronenberger More Quotes From Louis Kronenberger Nominally a great age of scientific inquiry, ours has become an age of superstition about the infallibility of science; of almost mystical faith in its non-mystical methods; above all-which perhaps most explains the expert's sovereignty-of external verities; of traffic-cop morality and rabbit-test truth. Louis Kronenberger agefaithscience Highly educated bores are by far the worst; they know so much, in such fiendish detail, to be boring about. Louis Kronenberger detailsworstboring The test of interesting people is that subject matter doesn't matter. Louis Kronenberger sciencepeopleinteresting In the history of mankind, fanaticism has caused more harm than vice. Louis Kronenberger mankindharmvices Privacy was in sufficient danger before TV appeared, and TV has given it its death blow. Louis Kronenberger privacytvsblow It is the gossip columnist's business to write about what is none of his business. Louis Kronenberger columnistsgossipwriting One of the saddest things about conformity is the ghastly sort of non-conformity it breeds; the noisy protesting, the aggressive rebelliousness, the rigid counter-fetishism. Louis Kronenberger rebellionconformityrevolution The moving van is a symbol of more than our restlessness, it is the most conclusive evidence possible of our progress. Louis Kronenberger progressinspirationalmoving From the failure of the humanist tradition to participate fully or to act decisively, civilizations may perhaps crumble or perish at the hands of barbarians. But unless the humanist tradition itself in some form survives, there can really be no civilization at all. Louis Kronenberger philosophycivilizationhands Life for most of us is full of steep stairs to go up and later, shaky stairs to totter down; and very early in the history of stairs must have come the invention of bannisters. Louis Kronenberger inventiondown-andadversity A great maxim of personal responsibility and mature achievement: "Do it yourself" is now the enthroned cliche for being occupied with nonessentials. Louis Kronenberger achievementresponsibilitywisdom Conformity may not always reign in the prosperous bourgeois suburb, but it ultimately always governs. Louis Kronenberger reignconformitymay The essence of the expert is that his field shall be very special and narrow: one of the ways in which he inspires confidence is to rigidly limit himself to the little toe; he would scarcely venture an off-the-record opinion on an infected little finger. Louis Kronenberger essencespecialinspire It is one of the sublime provincialities of New York that its inhabitants lap up trivial gossip about essential nobodies they've never set eyes on, while continuing to boast that they could live somewhere for twenty years without so much as exchanging pleasantries with their neighbors across the hall. Louis Kronenberger eyenew-yorkyears True individualists tend to be quite unobservant; it is the snob, the would be sophisticate, the frightened conformist, who keeps a fascinated or worried eye on what is in the wind. Louis Kronenberger eyeclasswind Humor simultaneously wounds and heals, indicts and pardons, diminishes and enlarges; it constitutes inner growth at the expense of outer gain, and those who possess and honestly practice it make themselves more through a willingness to make themselves less. Louis Kronenberger growthhumorpractice Along with being forever on the move, one is forever in a hurry, leaving things inadvertently behind-friend or fishing tackle, old raincoat or old allegiance. Louis Kronenberger fishingtimemoving Having disciples is in the end like having children, only not with love but with self-love preeminent. Louis Kronenberger endsselfchildren Has there ever been an age so rife with neurotic sensibility, with that state of near shudders, or near hysteria, or near nausea, much of it induced by trifles, which used to belong to people who were at once ill-adjusted and over-civilized? Louis Kronenberger hysteriaagepeople Prig and philistine, Ph.D. and C.P.A., despot of English 218c and big shot of the Kiwanis Club-how much, at bottom, they both hate Art, and how hard it is to know which of them hates it the more. Louis Kronenberger hatecultureart
