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A Man At His Desk In A Room With A Closed Door Is A Man At Work. A Woman At A Desk In Any Room Is Available.

-Marya Mannes

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A Man At His

Marya Mannes

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A Man At His Desk In A Room With A Closed Door Is A Man At Work. A Woman At A Desk In Any Room Is Available.

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Flirtation ... Is A Graceful Salute To Sex, A Small Impermanent Spark Between One Human Being And Another, Between A Man And A Woman Not In Need Of Fire.

Human Progress Had So Often Been Checked By Those Who Were Afraid Of Losing What They Had.

It Is Privilege Of Living To Be Acutely, Agonizingly Conscious Of The Moment That Is Always Present And Always Passing.

The Great Omission In American Life Is Solitude; Not Loneliness, For This Is An Alienation That Thrives Most In The Midst Of Crowds, But That Zone Of Time And Space, Free From The Outside Pressures, Which Is The Incubator Of The Spirit.

All Great Lovers Are Articulate, And Verbal Seduction Is The Surest Road To Actual Seduction.

If American Men Are Obsessed With Money, American Women Are Obsessed With Weight. The Men Talk Of Gain, The Women Talk Of Loss, And I Do Not Know Which Talk Is The More Boring.

The More People Are Reached By Mass Communication, The Less They Communicate With Each Other.

Nobody Objects To A Woman Being A Good Writer Or Sculptor Or Geneticist If At The Same Time She Manages To Be A Good Wife, A Good Mother, Good-looking, Good-tempered, Well-dressed, Well-groomed, And Unaggressive.

In Our Long And Obsessive Passion For Youth, We Have - More Than Any Other Modern Society - Avoided Direct Approach To Age And To Dying By Denying Them In Word, In Fact, And - Above All - In Worth.

It's Never What You Say, But How You Make It Sound Sincere.

The Greatest Miracle Of All, The Human Being.

Surely The Hold Of Great Music On The Listener Is Precisely This: That The Listener Is Made Whole; And At The Same Time Part Of An Image Of Infinite Grace And Grandeur Which Is Creation.

The Earth We Abuse And The Living Things We Kill Will, In The End, Take Their Revenge; For In Exploiting Their Presence We Are Diminishing Our Future.

It Is A Marvellous Thing To Be Physically A Woman If Only To Know The Marvels Of A Man.

Certain Kinds Of People Become Republicans And Certain Kinds Of People Become Democrats, And ... It's More Than A Matter Of Party Affiliation. It's A Way Of Thinking And Being.

The Right To Choose Death When Life No Longer Holds Meaning Is Not Only The Next Liberation But The Last Human Right.

To Be At Peace With Self, To Find Company And Nourishment In Self-this Would Be The Test Of The Free And Productive Psyche.

The Curse Of The Romantic Is A Greed For Dreams, An Intensity Of Expectation That, In The End, Diminishes The Reality.

People On Horses Look Better Than They Are. People In Cars Look Worse Than They Are.

It Is Not Enough To Show People How To Live Better; There Is A Mandate For Any Group With Enormous Powers Of Communication To Show People How To Be Better.

You Cannot Throw Words Like Heroism And Sacrifice And Nobility And Honor Away Without Abandoning The Qualities They Express.

Art Can Excite, Titillate, Please, Entertain, And Sometimes Shock; But Its Ultimate Function Is To Ennoble.

The Faucet Leak, And Learn To Leave Them So.

Everybody Likes To See Somebody Else Get Caught For The Vices Practiced By Themselves.

Money Is Not An Aphrodisiac: The Desire It May Kindle In The Female Eye Is More For The Cash Than The Carrier.

I Don't Think It's Possible To Write A Good Play Or Paint A Good Picture And Be A Good Republican.

[the Sea] Is The Healer And The Reviver, It Cleanses The Cavities Of Self-disgust And Melancholy, Of Sloth And Negation With The Salt Solution Of Life. It Cures The Lethargies Of Flesh And Spirit With The Slap And Shake Of Elemental Force. It Cradles And Comforts. Give It Trust And It Holds You Secure; Fight It And It Kills.

The Barbarian Weapon Is Fission: The Splitting Asunder. It Has Been Perfected For Death. Our Only Weapon Is Fusion: An Imperfect Process Still, Though Designed For Life.

I Would Call An Intellectual One Whose Instrument Of Work - His Mind - Is Also His Major Source Of Pleasure; A Man Whose Entertainment Is His Intelligence.

When Women Can Cherish The Vulnerability Of Men As Much As Men Can Exult In The Strength Of Women, A New Breed Could Lift A Ruinous Yoke From Both.

The Real Demon Is Success-the Anxieties Engendered By This Quest Are Relentless, Degrading, Corroding. What Is Worse, There Is No End To This Escalation Of Desire.

The World Of Sight Is Still Limitless. It Is The Artist Who Limits Vision To The Cramped Dimensions Of His Own Ego.

Generosity With Strings Is Not Generosity: It Is A Deal.

Artists Never Make Wars. They Are Too Busy Making Life Out Of The Matter Of Their Visions.

A Musical Audience Is At Best Uninspiring, At Worst Definitely Drab. ... Respectability Hangs Like A Pall Over The Orchestra And The Boxes; A Sort Of Sterile Sobriety Ill-fitted To The Passionate Geometry Of Music.

A High Standard Of Living Is Usually Accompanied By A Low Standard Of Thinking.

A Man At His Desk In A Room With A Closed Door Is A Man At Work. A Woman At A Desk In Any Room Is Available.

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Until We Know What Motivates The Hearts And Minds Of Men We Can Understand Nothing Outside Ourselves, Nor Will We Ever Reach Fulfillment As That Greatest Miracle Of All, The Human Being.

The Incredible New Medical Technology Has Made It Possible For Highly Disciplined Teams Of Surgeons ... To Keep Stricken Organisms Alive Even If The Brain Is Irretrievably Damaged Or Lung And Heart Incapable Of Functioning Without Mechanical Help. Now It Is Not Dust To Dust, But Human To Vegetable.

Flirtation Is Merely An Expression Of Considered Desire Coupled With An Admission Of Its Impracticability.

Euthanasia ... Is Simply To Be Able To Die With Dignity At A Moment When Life Is Devoid Of It.

There Is Nothing Harder To Come By Than Detachment And Solitude; And Nothing More Important.

Television And Radio Violence Was Considered By Most Experts Of Minimal Importance As A Contributory Cause Of Youthful Killing. ... There Were Always Enough Experts To Assure The Public That Crime And Violence Had Nothing To Do With Crime And Violence.

Revelation Is The Marriage Of Knowing And Feeling.

To Be Successful In The World Of Art You Must, Of Course, Have Talent, Although Very Small Talents Have Gone Very Far In This Age. Just As The Microphone Gave Volume To Voices That Had None, So Does The Science Of Press-agentry Magnify Limited Skills Into Highly Saleable Properties.

The Suppression Of Civil Liberties Is Too Many Less A Matter For Horror Than The Curtailment Of The Freedom To Profit.

One Is As One Is, And The Love That Can't Encompass Both Is A Poor Sort Of Love.

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All Wars Derive From Lack Of Empathy: The Incapacity Of One To Understand And Accept The Likeness Or Difference Of Another. Whether In Nations Or The Encounters Of Race And Sex, Competition Then Replaces Compassion, Subjection Excludes Mutuality.

The Process Of Maturing Is An Art To Be Learned, An Effort To Be Sustained.

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Minds Are Cluttered From The Age Of Six With The Values Of Others-values Which Bear Little Relation To Their Own Private Capacities, Needs And Desires.

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No Man Is A Christian Who Cheats His Fellows, Perverts The Truth, Or Speaks Of A "clean Bomb" Yet He Will Be The First To Make Public His Faith In God.

The Process Of Maturing Is An Art To Be Learned, An Effort To Be Sustained. By The Age Of Fifty You Have Made Yourself What You Are, And If It Is Good, It Is Better Than Your Youth.

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In Our Society Those Who Are In Reality Superior In Intelligence Can Be Accepted By Their Fellows Only If They Pretend They Are Not.

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Infants Are Interesting Only To Their Parents.

Republicans Seems To Me To Be Chiefly Concerned With Holding On To What They Have: In Society, It's Position, Or Respectability, Or What You Will; In Business, Of Course, It's Profit.

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Hoary Idea, In Any Case, Expecting A Woman To Surrender Her Name To Her Husband's In Exchange For His. Why? Would Any Man Submerge His Identity And Heritage To The Woman He Wed?

Lie Down And Listen To The Crabgrass Grow.

Ribbons A-flutter And Orchids A-tremble, Yearly The Vigilant Daughters Assemble, Affirming In Fervid And Firm Resolutions Their Permanent Veto On All Revolutions.

We Pity Or Condemn The Communist Peoples Of The World For Being Bound In The Chains Of Doctrine. So Are We. Our Doctrine Runs As Follows: Our Way Is The Only Way.

Is There No End To This Escalation Of Desire?

In Aid, The Proper Attitude Is One Omitting Gratitude

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The Sign Of An Intelligent People Is Their Ability To Control Their Emotions By The Application Of Reason.

Advertisers In General Bear A Large Part Of The Responsibility For The Deep Feelings Of Inadequacy That Drive Women To Psychiatrists, Pills, Or The Bottle.

Performance Is An Act Of Faith.

You Mix The Affluence Of The White And The Poverty Of The Black And You Do Not Get A Civilized Society. Integration On An Equal Level Is One Thing. Mixing On An Unequal Level Is Another.

A Candidate For Office Can Have No Greater Advantage Than Muddled Syntax; No Greater Liability Than A Command Of Language.

I Don't Think The Advertisers Have Any Real Idea Of Their Power Not Only To Reflect But To Mould Society.

To Know The Good Is To React Against The Bad. Indifference Is The Mark Of Deprivation.

Borders Are Scratched Across The Hearts Of Men By Strangers With A Calm, Judicial Pen, And When The Borders Bleed We Watch With Dread The Lines Of Ink Across The Map Turn Red.

Timing And Arrogance Are Decisive Factors In The Successful Use Of Talent.

The Car, By Bisecting The Human Outline, Diminishes It, Producing A Race Of Half-people In A Motion Not Of Their Own Making

The New York Voice Reflects Its Diversity, Its Foreignness, And, Inevitably, The Sense Of Superiority New Yorkers Feel Or Come To Feel. It Says, Without Saying, We Know.

You Cannot Know What You Do Not Feel.

The Ultimate Cynicism Is To Suspend Judgment So That You Are Not Judged.

Women Are Repeatedly Accused Of Taking Things Personally. I Cannot See Any Other Honest Way Of Taking Them.

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