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John Updike Quotes

Writers’ lives break into two halves Picture Quote #1

Vagueness and procrastination are ever a comfort to the frail in spirit Picture Quote #1

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience Picture Quote #1

We are most alive when we're in love Picture Quote #1

TV families and your own are hard to tell apart, except your isn't interrupted every six minutes by commercials and theirs don't get bogged down into nothingness, a state where nothing happens, no skit, no zany visitors, no outburst on the laugh track, nothing at all but boredom and a lost feeling, especially when you get up in the morning and the moon is still shining and men are making noisy bets on the first tee Picture Quote #1

The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education Picture Quote #1

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I secretly understood: The primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is - it's irresistible charm - a fire Picture Quote #1

To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given Picture Quote #1

What more fiendish proof of cosmic irresponsibility than a Nature which, having invented sex as a way to mix genes, then permits to arise, amid all its perfumed and hypnotic inducements to mate, a tireless tribe of spirochetes and viruses that torture and kill us for following orders? Picture Quote #1

For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what we must do - they are glowing signifiers of our own necessities Picture Quote #1

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes Picture Quote #1

To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client; still, one must make the best of the case, for the purposes of Providence Picture Quote #1

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In general, the churches, visited by me often on weekdays... Bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst without quenching it Picture Quote #1

Natural beauty is essentially temporary and sad; hence the impression of obscene mockery which artificial flowers give us Picture Quote #1

... hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him Picture Quote #1

History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline Picture Quote #1

The thing about her is, she's good-natured. He knew it the second he saw her standing by the parking meters. He could just tell from the soft way her belly looked. With women, you keep bumping against them, because they want different things, they're a different race. Either they give, like a plant, or scrape, like a stone. In all the green world nothing feels as good as a woman's good nature Picture Quote #1

It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you Picture Quote #1

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I remember one English teacher in the eighth grade, Florence Schrack, whose husband also taught at the high school. I thought what she said made sense, and she parsed sentences on the blackboard and gave me, I'd like to think, some sense of English grammar and that there is a grammar, that those commas serve a purpose and that a sentence has a logic, that you can break it down. I've tried not to forget those lessons, and to treat the English language with respect as a kind of intricate tool Picture Quote #1

Most of American life is driving somewhere and then driving back wondering why the hell you went Picture Quote #1

The faith in an afterlife, however much our reason ridicules it, very modestly extends our faith that each moment of our consciousness will be followed by another - that a coherent matrix has been prepared for this precious self of ours. The guarantee that our self enjoys an intended relation to the outer world is most, if not all, of what we ask from religion. God is the self projected onto reality by our natural and necessary optimism. He is the not-me personified Picture Quote #1

I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards Picture Quote #1

There was a beauty here bigger than the hurtling beauty of basketball, a beauty refined from country pastures, a game of solitariness, of waiting, waiting for the pitcher to complete his gaze toward first base and throw his lightning, a game whose very taste, of spit and dust and grass and sweat and leather and sun, was America Picture Quote #1

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy Picture Quote #1

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It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere Picture Quote #1

My first thought, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy Picture Quote #1

We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one Picture Quote #1

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy Picture Quote #1

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit Picture Quote #1

Of plants tomatoes seemed the most human, eager and fragile and prone to rot Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

Writers’ lives break into two halves (John Updike Quotes) Vagueness and procrastination are ever a comfort to the frail in spirit (John Updike Quotes) A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience (John Updike Quotes) We are most alive when we're in love (John Updike Quotes) TV families and your own are hard to tell apart, except your isn't interrupted every six minutes by commercials and theirs don't get bogged down into nothingness, a state where nothing happens, no skit, no zany visitors, no outburst on the laugh track, nothing at all but boredom and a lost feeling, especially when you get up in the morning and the moon is still shining and men are making noisy bets on the first tee (John Updike Quotes) The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education (John Updike Quotes) I secretly understood: The primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is - it's irresistible charm - a fire (John Updike Quotes) To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given (John Updike Quotes) What more fiendish proof of cosmic irresponsibility than a Nature which, having invented sex as a way to mix genes, then permits to arise, amid all its perfumed and hypnotic inducements to mate, a tireless tribe of spirochetes and viruses that torture and kill us for following orders? (John Updike Quotes) For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what we must do - they are glowing signifiers of our own necessities (John Updike Quotes) There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes (John Updike Quotes) To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client; still, one must make the best of the case, for the purposes of Providence (John Updike Quotes) In general, the churches, visited by me often on weekdays... Bore for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola; they promoted thirst without quenching it (John Updike Quotes) Natural beauty is essentially temporary and sad; hence the impression of obscene mockery which artificial flowers give us (John Updike Quotes) ... hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him (John Updike Quotes) History. The more of it you have the more you have to live it. After a little while there gets to be too much of it to memorize and maybe that's when empires start to decline (John Updike Quotes) The thing about her is, she's good-natured. He knew it the second he saw her standing by the parking meters. He could just tell from the soft way her belly looked. With women, you keep bumping against them, because they want different things, they're a different race. Either they give, like a plant, or scrape, like a stone. In all the green world nothing feels as good as a woman's good nature (John Updike Quotes) It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you (John Updike Quotes) I remember one English teacher in the eighth grade, Florence Schrack, whose husband also taught at the high school. I thought what she said made sense, and she parsed sentences on the blackboard and gave me, I'd like to think, some sense of English grammar and that there is a grammar, that those commas serve a purpose and that a sentence has a logic, that you can break it down. I've tried not to forget those lessons, and to treat the English language with respect as a kind of intricate tool (John Updike Quotes) Most of American life is driving somewhere and then driving back wondering why the hell you went (John Updike Quotes) The faith in an afterlife, however much our reason ridicules it, very modestly extends our faith that each moment of our consciousness will be followed by another - that a coherent matrix has been prepared for this precious self of ours. The guarantee that our self enjoys an intended relation to the outer world is most, if not all, of what we ask from religion. God is the self projected onto reality by our natural and necessary optimism. He is the not-me personified (John Updike Quotes) I like old men. They can be wonderful bastards because they have nothing to lose. The only people who can be themselves are babies and old bastards (John Updike Quotes) There was a beauty here bigger than the hurtling beauty of basketball, a beauty refined from country pastures, a game of solitariness, of waiting, waiting for the pitcher to complete his gaze toward first base and throw his lightning, a game whose very taste, of spit and dust and grass and sweat and leather and sun, was America (John Updike Quotes) The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy (John Updike Quotes) It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere (John Updike Quotes) My first thought, as a child, was that the artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy (John Updike Quotes) We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one (John Updike Quotes) America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy (John Updike Quotes) What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit (John Updike Quotes) Of plants tomatoes seemed the most human, eager and fragile and prone to rot (John Updike Quotes)

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