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.
I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.
Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.
Coffee, the sober drink, the mighty nourishment of the brain, which unlike other spirits, heightens purity and lucidity; coffee, which clears the clouds of the imagination and their gloomy weight; which illuminates the reality of things suddenly with the flush of truth.
Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitivities to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invading armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior.
I haven't any language weak enough to depict the weakness of my spiritual life. If I weakened it enough it would cease to be language at all. As when you try to turn the gas-ring a little lower still, and it merely goes out.
Where liberty is, there is my country.
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