Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles oh, damn their measured merriment.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the superficial joy and measured happiness portrayed by executives, suggesting a disdain for inauthenticity.
Sinclair Lewis's quote expresses a strong disapproval of the disingenuous attitudes often exhibited by powerful figures in society, particularly executives, who present themselves with calculated joy and satisfaction while lacking genuine emotion. It calls into question the authenticity of their happiness and implies that such measured merriment is a facade, indicating a deeper critique of societal norms that value appearance over sincerity.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation on corporate culture and the importance of genuine leadership.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
The world of crime is a last refuge of the authentic, uncorrupted, spontaneous event.
The earth has enough resources for our need, but not for our greed.
All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.
A world government with powers adequate to guarantee security is not a remote ideal for the distant future. It is an urgent necessity if our civilization is to survive.
We are born into a world in which sexual possibilities are narrowly circumscribed. . . . We are programmed by the culture as surely as rats are programmed to make the arduous way through the scientist's maze, and that programming operates on every level of choice and action.
If you don't have the smoking gun, then it's pointless to hector interviewees. Because you just shut people up instead of opening them up.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.