“In urging all writers to be steadfast in reliance on the ultimate victory of excellence, we should no less strenuously urge upon them to beware of the intemperate arrogance which attributes failure to a degraded condition of the public mind. The instinct which leads the world to worship success is not dangerous. The book which succeeds accomplishes its aim. The book which fails may have many excellencies, but they must have been misdirected.” WorldShouldMindMayHas BeensBookFailingConditionsDangerousVictorySucceedWorshipUltimateAimExcellenceInstinctAccomplishArroganceUrgesAttributesRelianceSteadfast Book:The Principles of Success in Literature Source: The Principles of Success in Literature
“The popular books are the novels, dealing with life under all possible conditions, and they are widely read not only because they are entertaining, but also because they in a measure satisfy an unformulated belief that to see farther, to know all sorts of men, in an indefinite way, is a preparation for better social adjustment--for the remedying of social ills.” KnowsMenWayBookBeliefSocialNovelConditionsPreparationEntertainingAdjustmentPopular BookDealing With Life Author:Jane Addams
“Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition of our existence. If the lore of the transmigration of souls is a true one, then these, between their exchange of bodies, must pass through the sea of forgetfulness.” IfsBookSoulBodyRememberForgetExistenceSeaConditionsOppositesForgetfulnessTrue Ones Book:The Nazarene Source: The Nazarene
“My pessimism (which, by the way, is far from absolute) originated with my despair in the lack of perfection to be found in human nature. I was attempting in my successive books to show the inevitable handicap of the human condition.” WayHumansBookShowsFoundConditionsHuman NatureDespairPerfectionAbsolutesInevitablePessimismHuman ConditionAttemptingHandicaps Author:Stanislaw Lem
“I guess I'm interested in the behind-the-surface feelings of the human condition, in my own way. I was always struck by the gap - at least in the books I was reading - between what people tell stories about and what I actually feel. I started thinking about a gap between fantasy and reality.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsHumansBookStoriesFeelingsRealityReadingMy OwnBehindsFantasyConditionsSurfaceGapsHuman ConditionFantasy And Reality Author:Signe Baumane
“Ben Marcus has created an innovative and unflinching portrait of the turmoil of the human condition, providing the reader a most rare gift: something truly new. Notable American Women contains strains of Donald Antrim and Samuel Beckett but is beholden to neither; it is a brave, original book.” HumansBookConditionsReaderOriginalsBraveHuman ConditionProvidingPortraitsStrainInnovativeNotableTurmoilAmerican WomanBeckett Author:Myla Goldberg
“In an extensive reading of recent books by psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and inspirationalists, I have discovered that they all suffer from one or more of these expression-complexes: italicizing, capitalizing, exclamation-pointing, multiple-interrogating, and itemizing. These are all forms of what the psychos themselves would call, if they faced their condition frankly, Rhetorical-Over-Compensation.” IfsBookFormSufferingReadingPsychologyConditionsExpressionComplexesMultiplePointingCompensationPsychiatristPsychologistPsychoRhetoricalExclamationExtensive Reading Author:James Thurber
“If anybody would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces, and gardens and fine dinners, and wine, and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I would not read books, I would not be a king.” IfsBookBeautifulConditionsFineKingsClothesGardenWineDinnerCoachesServantPalacesBeautiful Clothes Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
“Anyone who fears, as I do, that today's public schools are dangerously close to being irrelevant must read this book. The authors provide a road map-and a lifeline-showing how schools can prosper under the most difficult conditions. It is a welcome departure from all the school bashing.” BookTodaySchoolDifficultConditionsWelcomeMapsIrrelevantPublic SchoolDepartureRoad MapsLifelines Author:John Merrow
“No, Groucho is not my real name. I am breaking it in for a friend. I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception. I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it. I didn't like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions - the curtain was up.” BookRealPlayFacesTurnsNamesForgetRoomsCasesSawsWonderfulConditionsTelevisionGladEveningExceptionNever ForgetCurtainsAdverse Author:Groucho Marx
“In terms of the economics, yes obviously the rise of e-books and how people choose to read books has a big effect on the economics of the game. But whether people are buying them on paper or downloading them there's still some poor wretch in a room who is trying to write a poem, write a story, write a novel. And so my job doesn't change. It's just how people receive it and economic conditions on the ground change, but that doesn't affect what I write.” PeopleWritingTryingStillsBookStoriesBigsJobsGamesTermPoorRoomsNovelEconomicConditionsEffectsPaperEconomicsBuying Author:Colson Whitehead
“I think because of these big issues of life and death that maybe sex feels like a crass question. But for Christ sake, this is a book that is so interested in an elemental human condition. And one of the ideas about surrender is an erotic surrender, too. These folks are surrendered by destiny; they surrender to each other in certain moments, but there is a lot of erotic surrender.” ThinkingFeelsHumansBookIdeasMomentsBigsCertainSexChristDestinyIssuesConditionsSakeFolksSurrenderLife And DeathHuman ConditionEroticElementalsCrassThis Is A Book Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“This is why very often you find educated people in the media who look at spiritual books but they are so identified with their thought process, they don't get it. They write reviews or articles and they miss the whole point. They can't see the essence. It's not their fault; it's not them personally. It's the human condition and its mind-identified state. And intelligence in itself doesn't help. You can have two or three Ph.D.s; it doesn't get you any closer to spiritual realization. In fact, you might be more distant.” PeopleWritingMindHumansLooksTwoBookStatesWholeFactsHelpingMightSpiritualThreeProcessConditionsMediaMissingEssenceFaultsEducatedRealizationReviewsArticlesHuman ConditionThought Process Author:Eckhart Tolle
“I hope my books make statements about our general condition.” BookConditionsStatements Author:William Golding