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Quote by George Saunders

“...smile first, then speak.”

Quote by George Saunders

Book:The Braindead Megaphone

Work

The Braindead Megaphone

An examination of the influence of media on public opinion and the way information is consumed and disseminated in modern society more

Author

George Saunders

George Saunders, born on December 2, 1958, is an American writer known for his unique humor and profound insights. His works, primarily short stories, have gained widespread recognition and have been honored with numerous literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. more

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“The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?”

Knows Feels Kind Feelings House Clear Passionate Drunk Stumbling

Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone

Source: The Brain-Dead Megaphone

“Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.”

Writing Happens Used

Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone

Source: The Brain-Dead Megaphone

“What good the prophet in the wilderness may do is incremental and personal. It's good for us to hear someone speak the irrational truth. It's good for us when, in spite of all of the sober, pragmatic, and even correct arguments that war is sometimes necessary someone says: war is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being.”

May War Sometimes Guy Speak Worst Argument Murder Scales Prophet Spite Wilderness Irrational Sober Pragmatic Large Scale Stupidest Slaughterhouse Five

Book:The Brain-Dead Megaphone

Source: The Brain-Dead Megaphone

“I was worn out, broken: He had taken almost everything. But he'd been all I'd had, all this time. And when the police led him away, I pulled out of the hands of all these loved one, sobbing, screaming, everything hurting, to try and make him stay.”

Trying Hands Hurt Taken Broken Police Loved Ones Worn Worn Out Sobbing

Book:Dreamland

Source: Dreamland

“The mother...swinging the children by pulling on a length of string, while at the same time she kept and eye on them with that protective watchfulness, half animal, half angelic, which is the quality of motherhood.”

Children Eye Mother Animal Half Quality Motherhood Length Strings Pulling Protective Angelic Watchfulness

Author:Victor Hugo

“We must never fear robbers or murderers. They are dangers from outside, small dangers. It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, vice the real murderer. Why should we be troubled by a threat to our person or our pocket? What we have to beware of is the threat to our souls'.”

Should Persons Real Soul Danger Prejudice Threat Vices Pockets Murderer Robbers Never Fear

Book:Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I haste to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live.”

Littles Beautiful Numbers Struggle Civilization Built Add Notion Ruins Acceptable Haste

Author:Marilynne Robinson

“It is a good thing to know what it is to be poor, and a better thing if you can do it in company.”

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Book:Gilead: A Novel

Source: Gilead: A Novel

“For most Americans the Constitution had become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life.”

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Author:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

“...human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse.”

Humans Human Beings Moral Ignorance Species Tragic Equipment Splendid Pathetic Misuse Propensity

Book:The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Source: The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology