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Lillian Hellman

Lillian Hellman Quotes

Author

Lillian Hellman was an American playwright and screenwriter, renowned for her dramatic works and political activism. Her plays frequently delved into themes of political intrigue and personal morality, making her a significant figure in American theater during the mid-20th century.

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All People Thinking Knows Ifs Writing Made Men Way Women Ends Fashion Memorable World Years France Should Want Age America Believe

Famous Lillian Hellman Quotes

“Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America.”

Thinking America Thoughts England Russia France Intellectuals Ruling Classes Patsies

Book:An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir

Source: An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir

“Guilt is often an excuse for not thinking.”

Thinking Guilt Excuse

Author:Lillian Hellman

“History is made by masses of people. One man, or ten men, don't start the earthquakes and don't stop them either. Only hero worshipers and ignorant historians think they do.”

People Thinking Men Made History Hero Ten Mass Ignorant One Man Historian Earthquakes Hero Worship

Book:The Searching Wind: A Play in Two Acts

Source: The Searching Wind: A Play in Two Acts

“Don't you think people often say other people are tough when they do not know how to cheat them?”

People Thinking Knows Know How Perception Tough Cheat

Book:Six Plays

Source: Six Plays

“I don't think many writers like their best-known piece of work, particularly when it was written a long time ago.”

Thinking Long Known Pieces Written Long Time Long Time Ago

Book:Conversations with Lillian Hellman

Source: Conversations with Lillian Hellman

“We will not think noble because we are not noble. We will not live in beautiful harmony because there is no such thing in this world, nor should there be. We promise only to do our best and to live out our lives. Dear God, that's all we can promise in truth.”

Thinking World Should Beautiful Our Lives This World Promise Harmony Dear Noble Dear God

Book:CANDIDE The famous musical based on Voltaire's satire

Source: CANDIDE The famous musical based on Voltaire's satire

“We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.”

People Thinking Want America Past Remember Mistake Neurotic Unhealthy Psychotic

Book:Scoundrel time

Source: Scoundrel time

“Decisions, particularly important ones, have always made me sleepy, perhaps because I know that I will have to make them by instinct, and thinking things out is only what other people tell me I should do.”

People Thinking Knows Should Made Important Decision Instinct Sleepy

Book:Pentimento

Source: Pentimento

“Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.”

Thinking Time Courses

Author:Lillian Hellman

“I am suspicious of guilt in myself and in other people; it is usually a way of not thinking, or of announcing one's own fine sensibilities the better to be rid of them fast.”

People Thinking Way Fine Guilt Sensibility Suspicious Announcing

Author:Lillian Hellman

“We all lead more pedestrian lives than we think we do. The boiling of an egg is sometimes more important than the boiling of a love affair in the end.”

Thinking Important Ends Sometimes Importance Affair Eggs Love Affair Boiling Pedestrians

Book:Conversations with Lillian Hellman

Source: Conversations with Lillian Hellman

About the Author

Born: June 20, 1905
Died: June 30, 1984
Known for: Author
Quotes: 109

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People Thinking Knows Ifs Writing Made Men Way Women Ends Fashion Memorable World Years France Should Want Age America Believe

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Conversations with Lillian HellmanRelated source material

An Unfinished Woman: A MemoirRelated source material

Six PlaysRelated source material

The collected playsRelated source material

Another Part of the Forest: Play in Three ActsRelated source material

Scoundrel timeRelated source material

Toys in the AtticRelated source material

Four PlaysRelated source material

The Autumn Garden: Play in Three ActsRelated source material

CANDIDE The famous musical based on Voltaire's satireRelated source material

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