There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
Dorothy ParkerRead
But I give you my word, in the entire book there is nothing that cannot be said aloud in mixed company. And there is, also, nothing that makes you a bit the wiser. I wonder--oh, what will you think of me--if those two statements do not verge upon the synonymous.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the superficiality of certain truths, suggesting that what is deemed appropriate for public discussion often lacks depth or insight.
Dorothy Parker's quote reflects on the nature of truth and wisdom within literature, indicating that while something may be acceptable to share in diverse company, it does not necessarily enhance one's understanding or knowledge. The irony presents a critique of the limitations of communication, highlighting that mere acceptability does not equate to depth or value in content.
Themes
WisdomTruthSuperficialityLiteratureCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about the merits of safe vs. profound literature at a book club.
More from Dorothy Parker
All quotes →My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.
Dorothy ParkerRead
They say of me, and so they should, It's doubtful if I come to good. I see acquaintances and friends Accumulating dividends And making enviable names In science, art and parlor games. But I, despite expert advice, Keep doing things I think are nice, And though to good I never come Inseparable my nose and thumb.
Dorothy ParkerRead
It is that word 'hunny,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
Dorothy ParkerRead
I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Similar quotes
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
Anthony BurgessRead
You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside.
Alan CohenRead
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Franklin P. JonesRead
I have tried to be a man of letters in love with ideas in order to be a wiser and more loving person, hoping to leave the world just a little better than I found it.
Cornel WestRead
The mind of one meditating on a single object becomes one-pointed. And one-pointedness of mind leads to abidance in the self. Real attainment is to be fully conscious, to be aware of surroundings and the people around, to move among them all, but not to merge consciousness in the environment. One should remain in inner independent awareness.
Ramana MaharshiRead
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
Thomas A. EdisonRead