Quotes from Louis Kronenberger

Privacy was in sufficient danger before TV appeared, and TV has given it its death blow.

We might define an eccentric as a man who is a law unto himself, and a crank as one who, having determined what the law is, insists on laying it down to others.

London ... remains a man's city where New York is chiefly a woman's. London has whole streets that cater to men's wants. It has its great solid phalanx of fortress clubs.

One must never judge the writer by the man; but one may fairly judge the man by the writer.

Once you have money, you can quite truthfully affirm that money isn't everything.

On any morning these days whole segments of the population wake up to find themselves famous, while, to keep matters shipshape, whole contingents of celebrities wake up to find themselves forgotten.

The trouble with us in America isn't that the poetry of life has turned to prose, but that it has turned to Advertising copy.

Someone who gossips well has a reputation for being good company or even a wit, never for being a gossip.

There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave.

In the history of mankind, fanaticism has caused more harm than vice.

The moving van is a symbol of more than our restlessness, it is the most conclusive evidence possible of our progress.

The test of interesting people is that subject matter doesn't matter.

In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought.

The life of sense begins by assuming that we can only fitfully live the life of reason.

One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well.

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.

In general, American social life constitutes an evasion of talking to people. Most Americans don't, in any vital sense, get together; they only do things together.

Today's competitiveness, so much imposed from without, is exhausting, not exhilarating; is unending-a part of one's social life, one's solitude, one's sleep, one's sleeplessness.

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.

In an automobile civilization, which was one of constant motion and activity, there was almost no time to think; in a television one, there is small desire.

Highly educated bores are by far the worst; they know so much, in such fiendish detail, to be boring about.

Having disciples is in the end like having children, only not with love but with self-love preeminent.

The trouble with our age is all signposts and no destination.

The Englishman wants to be recognized as a gentleman, or as some other suitable species of human being; the American wants to be considered a good guy.