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Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair Quotes

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Famous Upton Sinclair Quotes

“Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be harmless, when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence?”

MenTryingMayMadeSelfUseGivenAnimalFateStrangeWeaknessConcernedNotionDenyGenuineDeceptionImpulseBeastFormulasHeroicIndulgenceSelf DeceptionAncestryHumiliatedCultivatingSelf Indulgence
Author:Upton Sinclair
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“So the laws of good driving forbade you to go off the magic ribbon except in extreme emergencies. You were ethically entitled to several inches of margin at the right-hand edge; and the man approaching you was entitled to an equal number of inches; which left a remainder of inches between the two projectiles as they shot by. It sounds risky as one tells it, but the heavens are run on the basis of similar calculations, and while collisions do happen, they leave time enough in between for universes to be formed, and successful careers conducted by men of affairs.”

MenTwoEnoughHandsHappensRunningLawUniverseLeftHeavenSoundNumbersCareersSuccessfulMagicHe ManEqualShotsBasesAffairEdgesExtremesDrivingInchesEntitledEmergenciesMarginsCalculationsCollisionRibbonsSuccessful CareerProjectile
Book:Oil!
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“All day long this man would toil thus, his whole being centered upon the purpose of making twenty-three instead of twenty-two and a half cents an hour; and then his product would be reckoned up by the census taker, and jubilant captains of industry would boast of it in their banquet halls, telling how our workers are nearly twice as efficient as those of any other country. If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy.”

IfsMenLongHas BeensTwoCountryWholeSeemsWould BeAblePurposeThreeNationsHoursHalfSunProductsIndustryTwentiesWorkersHallsEfficientCentsOther CountriesCaptainsToilBoastFrenzyBanquetsTwenty TwoCensusCaptains Of Industry
Book:The Jungle
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“Into this wild-beast tangle these men had been born without their consent, they had taken part in it because they could not help it; that they were in jail was no disgrace to them, for the game had never been fair, the dice were loaded. They were swindlers and thieves of pennies and dimes, and they had been trapped and put out of the way by the swindlers and thieves of millions of dollars.”

MenWayHelpingGamesBornMillionsTakenFairsDollarsBeastJailThievesTrappedConsentDisgracePenniesLoadedDimesDiceWild BeastsSwindlers
Book:The Jungle
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“And as for other men, who worked in tank-rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting,-sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out into the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! This contributed to the passing of the Pure Food Act of 1906.”

MenWorldSometimesEnoughWould BeLawScienceLeftLevelsRoomsGoneTroublePureBonesPassingPassingsPeculiarLeafsTanksSteamOverlookedVatDurhamLard
Author:Upton Sinclair
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“They were the triumphant and insolent possessors; they had a hall, and a fire, and food and clothing and money, and so they might preach to hungry men, and the hungry men must be humble and listen. They were trying to save their souls- and who but a fool could fail to see that all that was the matter with their souls was that they had not managed to get a decent existence for their bodies?”

MenTryingSoulMatterBodyMightExistenceFireFailingFoolHumbleHungryDecentHallsClothingsBe HumbleTriumphantInsolentHungry Man
Book:The Jungle
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