Quotes
Authors
Janet Malcolm

"Society mediates between the extremes of, on the one hand, intolerably strict morality and, on the other, dangerously anarchic permissiveness through an unspoken agreement whereby we are given leave to bend the rules of the strictest morality, provided we do so quietly and discreetly. Hypocrisy is the grease that keeps society functioning in an agreeable way, by allowing for human fallibility and reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable human needs for order and pleasure."

Source : "The Journalist and the Murderer". Book by Janet Malcolm, 1989.

Janet Malcolm

#Agreement Quotes #Hands Quotes #Order Quotes

“A man rarely knows the day and hour when he will die. I could be killed any moment and there's not a blasted thing I can do about it.”
“In the old systems, hierarchies emanate power from above to below through forms of line management and are ideologically supported by cosmologies and theologies featuring celestial rulers and their deputies - the 'rule of the best.'”
“I do believe that movies are subject to a million interpretations.”
“Caring for our veterans is the duty of a grateful nation. Unfortunately, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans have not lived up to this duty.”
“The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan.”

Source : Mary Roach (2012). “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers”, p.14, Penguin UK
“The inventor and the research man are confused because they both examine results of physical or chemical operations. But they are exact opposites, mirror images of one another. The research man does something and does not care [exactly] what it is that happens, he measures whatever it is. The inventor wants something to happen, but does not care how it happens or what it is that happens if it is not what he wants.”
“If you please God, it does not matter whom you displease. And if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please.”
“I think every generation has that movement of hip-hop that you know you're playing it and you definitely have that moment of like, "Why am I saying this so enthusiastically? Why am I so stoked and psyched to say these lyrics?"”

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