Quotes from Rich Cohen

He described his grand strategy as indirection. If General Motors hired Joe Schmo to sell cars, Joe Schmo would give an interview to Road & Track, telling them the specs of the Thunderbird, engine size in cubic inches, zero-to-sixty, and so on. Given the same job, Bernays would lobby Congress for higher speed limits, making it more fun to own a Thunderbird. Rather than fight for a single season of sales, he would make the world more friendly to his product.

In the 1950s, a consortium of publishers—including Harcourt Brace and Simon & Schuster—concerned about a dip in numbers, hired Bernays. Did he go into schools and make the case for books? No, he talked to the architects and contractors who were designing the new suburban homes and convinced them a house is not modern if it does not include built-in bookshelves. Indirection.

he wanted to win. And would do whatever it took. Here was a self-made man, filled with the most dangerous kind of confidence: he had done it before and believed he could do it gain. This gave him the air of a berserker, who says, If you're going to fight me, you better kill me. - p113

Bernays set various goals: convince the American people of the Communist presence in Guatemala; convince members of Congress the issue is a winner; convince the CIA, which can actually do something on the ground, it's time to act. Bernays wouldn't make the world better for bananas, he would make the world better for American politicians, who would make the world better for the CIA, which would make the world better for bananas. Indirection.

The greatness of Zemurray lies in the fact that he never lost faith in his ability to salvage a situation. Bad things happened to him as bad things happen to everyone, but unlike so many he was never tempted by failure. He never felt powerless or trapped. He was, as I said

Show me a happy man and I will show you a man who is getting nothing accomplished in this world.

a man can free his soul only by exhausting his body.

The world is a mere succession of fortunes made and lost, lessons learned and forgotten and learned again.)

What cannot be accomplished by threats can often be achieved by composure. Sit and stare and let your opponent fill the silence with his own demons.

giving with display is not giving, but trading. I give you money, you give me prestige. Philanthropy that does not degrade is done so quietly not even the rescued learns the name of his rescuer.

Where you end up is the thing, not how you get there. How you get there, that's just something to be debated by the suckers who never make it out.

If you want to advance a private interest, turn it into a public cause.

Yes, a major can break a record or sell a hit, but it can never lead the way.

Football is an angry game, played with punishing violence," he writes. "People get destroyed on the field, lives end. It makes sense that its first star was someone who'd already lost everything, a ruined man, ill-treated, stripped to his essential qualities: speed, strength, power. Jim Thorpe is the spirit of the game. Every NFL hit still carries the fury of the disgraced Indian, prowling the field, seeking justice.

I no longer live in Chicago. Not a day goes by when I do not wish I were there.

I shook his hand and thanked him, and as I thanked him I welled up and as that happened I tried to explain. 'It's because I'm from Chicago,' I said. 'Where in Chicago are you from?' he asked. 'Glencoe.' 'That's not Chicago,' he said, and waved me away.

he wanted to win. And would do whatever it took. Here was a self-made man, filled with the most dangerous kind of confidence: he had done it before and believed he could do it again. This gave him the air of a berserker, who says, If you're going to fight me, you better kill me.

Guy Molony, who ran away from New Orleans at sixteen to fight in the Boer War. It was the era of romantic soldiering, when boys heeded the call of Rudyard Kipling ("Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, / Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst," he wrote in "Mandalay").

According to David Maraniss, the author of When Pride Still Mattered, Lombardi's last words, spoken in a delirium on his deathbed, were: "Joe Namath! You're not bigger than football! Remember that!

First: modern society, with its millions, is essentially ungovernable. The public must instead be controlled by manipulation. The men who do this manipulating, in government or not, are the true leaders, philosopher-kings. They need not manipulate all the people, only the few thousand who set the agenda. The drivers of history are not the people, in other words, nor the elite who influence the people, but the PR men who influence the elite who influence the people.

the Beatles and the Stones, never the Stones and the Beatles.

Show me a happy man and I will show you a man who is getting nothing accomplished in this world. Ripe

After all, almost everyone I know, even my very oldest friends, remain, in important ways, a mystery to me.

absolute criminality is absolute freedom.