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Respectability Quotes

Browse 152 quotes about Respectability.

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Respectability Quotes

“It was not only colored people who praised John, since they could not, John felt, in any case really know; but white people also said it, in fact had said it first and said it still. It was when John was five years old and in the first grade that he was first noticed; and since he was noticed by an eye altogether alien and impersonal, he began to perceive, in wild uneasiness, his individual existence.”

Self EsteemIdentityRacismRespectSelf RespectIndividualismRace RelationsAngstRacism In AmericaRace And Racism In AmericaSelf ActualizationRespectabilityIdentity CrisisRacism And CultureIdentity Confusion
Book:Go Tell It on the Mountain
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“It is common knowledge that a well-bred man should as far as possible have no face. That is to say, not so much be completely without one, but rather, should have a face and yet at the same time appear faceless. It should not stand out, just as a shirt made by a good tailor does not stand out. Needless to say, the face of a well-bred man should be exactly like that of other (well-bred) men and of course in no circumstances whatsoever should it alter. Naturally houses, trees, streets, sky and everything else in the world must satisfy the same conditions to have honor of being known as respectable and well-bred.”

ClassBreedingFaceRespectabilityWell Bred
Book:Islanders & The Fisher of Men
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“Had he lived some centuries ago, in the brightly coloured civilisations of the past, he would have had a definite status, his rank and his income would have corresponded. But in his day the angel of Democracy had arisen, enshadowing the classes with leathern wings, and proclaiming, “All men are equal — all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas,” and so he was obliged to assert gentility, lest he slip into the abyss where nothing counts, and the statements of Democracy are inaudible.”

ClassDemocracyEqualityIgnoredNeglectedRespectabilityStatusGentility
Book:Howards End
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“The part of us that wants to be married and have a family is the part that wants to be normal, like other people, set on the path we were raised to believe was the right path--not just to happiness, but to respectability, acceptance, community. The part of us that wants love-potion-strength romance is the part that wants to go mad.”

LoveHappinessRomanceCommunityFamilyMarriageAcceptanceMadnessNormalityRespectability
Book:The Vulnerables
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“When Hammett turns to the respectable world, the world of respectable society, of affluence and influence, of open personal and political power, he finds only more of the same. The respectability of respectable American society is as much a fiction and a fraud as the phony respectable society manufactured by the criminals. Indeed, he unwaveringly represents the world of crime as a reproduction in both structure and detail of the modern capitalist society it depends on, preys off, and is part of. He not only continually juxtaposes and connects the ambiguously fictional worlds of art and writing with the fraudulently fictional worlds of society; he connects them, juxtaposes them, and sees them in dizzying and baffling interaction... It is into this bottomlessly equivocal, endlessly fraudulent and brutally acquisitive world that Hammett precipitates the Op.”

CapitalismGangstersAmerican SocietyRespectabilityCriminalityDashiell Hammett
Book:The Continental Op
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“Claiming the right to be nasty in resistance to gendered respectability politics is often done by women who continue to be positioned as respectable by the world at large. And the ‘respectability’ of bourgeois white women has been central to colonial narratives that construct us as superior to women marginalised by race and class. Affronts to this ‘respectability’ have justified fatal violence against men of colour. This position of race and class supremacy means that our anger may not always be as radical or transgressive as we might like.”

ViolenceAngerColonialismRespectabilityWhite Feminism
Book:Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism
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“Don’t ”be yourself”, but work on yourself. Don’t ”be who you are”, but be who you ought. Don’t ”follow your dreams”, but face your realities. And don’t ”live your life”, but live a respectable life. Then you will find out that you cannot do everything, but at least you have to do something.”

Self MotivationSelf KnowledgeSelf DisciplineFlourishingSelf ActualizationRespectabilitySelf AbsorptionSelf FulfillmentSelf DenialBeing Oneself
Author:Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski
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“The taxi driver felt that it was a good observation, and said he was planning to build for the future, too: he had some money on the horses, and if he won, he would buy his own taxicab, and really do well. I felt very sorry. I told him that betting on the horses was a bad idea, but he insisted it was the only way he could do it. He had such good intentions, but his method was going to be luck. I wasn't going to go on philosophizing, so he took me to a place where there was a steel band playing some great calypso music, and I had an enjoyable afternoon.”

OpinionsRespectabilityBlack HumorRichard FeynmanHumor IronyIgnorance Is StrengthHumor Inspirational Life
Author:Richard Feynman
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“We cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we imagine that we are pursuing a track on the royal high road of respectability and duty, and then complain of those ways being so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us.”

WayHandsDarkDestinyCuttingImagineMysteryDutyTrackSolveComplainingImagine ThatRoyalOur DestinyRiddleIntricateRespectabilityBewilderedDevouringHigh RoadSphinx
Book:The Secret Doctrine
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“It is not for nothing, either, that the umbrella has become the very foremost badge of modern civilization--the Urim and Thummim of respectability. . . . So strongly do we feel on this point, indeed, that we are almost inclined to consider all who possess really well-conditioned umbrellas as worthy of the Franchise.”

FeelsWellsModernCivilizationWorthyUmbrellaBadgesRespectabilityModern Civilization
Book:Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Third Edition
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“Respectability is a very good thing in its way, but it does not rise superior to all considerations. I would not for a moment venture to hint that it was a matter of taste; but I think I will go as far as this: that if a position is admittedly unkind, uncomfortable, unnecessary, and superfluously useless, although it were as respectableasthe Church of England, the sooner a man is out of it, the better for himself, and all concerned.”

IfsThinkingMenWayDoeMatterMomentsChurchPositionTasteConcernedEnglandGood ThingsVery GoodSuperiorsUselessUncomfortableConsiderationUnnecessaryVentureHintsUnkindRespectabilityChurch Of England
Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
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“Much indeed to be regretted, party disputes are now carried to such a length, and truth is so enveloped in mist and false representation, that it is extremely difficult to know through what channel to seek it. This difficulty to one, who is of no party, and whose sole wish is to pursue with undeviating steps a path which would lead this country to respectability, wealth, and happiness, is exceedingly to be lamented. But such, for wise purposes, it is presumed, is the turbulence of human passions in party disputes, when victory more than truth is the palm contended for.”

KnowsHumansCountryPoliticalPurposePassionWishDifficultWealthPartyStepsPathWiseVictoryTruth IsDifficultyPursueLengthSoleRepresentationPalmsPolitical PartiesDisputesMistRespectabilityPartisanshipTurbulenceWealth And Happiness
Book:The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“There's no denying that the way horror has been packaged in the past has done it no favours. Lurid black covers adorned with skulls, corpses crawling with insects and scantily clad maidens being chewed into by vampires -- all good clean fun, but it doesn't do much to give the genre an air of respectability or seriousness to the casual browser.”

WayGivingHas BeensDonePastFunBlackAirHorrorCleanVampireGenreFavourInsectsCorpsesCasualSeriousnessSkullsMaidensCrawlingRespectabilityBrowsers
Author:Tim Lebbon
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“Women deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the weakness of men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than their masters: but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour.”

MenWellsMayRealSometimesHoursVirtueMastersGloryWeaknessTriumphSentimentsTemporaryBoastGratificationTurkishObtainingDeludedRespectabilityReal PowerWeakness Of Man
Book:A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects
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“Intellectuals range through the finest gradations of kind and quality: from those who are merely educated neurotics, usually with strong hidden reactionary tendencies, through mediocrities of all kinds, to men of real brains and sensibility, more or less stiffened into various respectabilities or substitutes for respectability. The number of Ignorant Specialists is large. The number of hysterics and compulsives is also large.”

MenKindRealStrongNumbersBrainQualityVariousIgnorantTendenciesAll KindsEducatedRangeSubstitutesMediocritySensibilityFinestSpecialistsReactionariesRespectability
Book:A poet's prose: selected writings of Louise Bogan : with the uncollected poems
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“By elevating the dictum of the market to the role of the sole criterion of rationality and efficiency, economics denies even all "respectability" to the distinction between essential and non-essential consumption, between productive and unproductive labor, between actual and potential surplus.”

RolesEssentialsEconomicsLaborDenyDistinctionProductiveSoleConsumptionEfficiencyRationalityCriteriaSurplusRespectabilityElevatingUnproductive
Book:Political Econ of Growth
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“A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him. It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to maintain appearances, and to confess a conventional respectability, which is more than human. Life-long practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men.”

MenWayHumansKindLongSoundPracticeDangerFellowsBlameInvestingAppearanceHuman LifeOrthodoxRealisticConventionalRuinedAlasLong LifeBankersRespectabilityMost Romantic
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

MenGivingLawCertainResultsEmotionPureDrawsWeakAccountsVanityUselessCharmResolutionNow And ThenInterfereRespectabilityLuxuriousCheques
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories
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“You are all alike, you respectable people. You can't tell me the bursting strain of a ten-inch gun, which is a very simple matter;but you all think you can tell me the bursting strain of a man under temptation. You daren't handle high explosives; but you're all ready to handle honesty and truth and justice and the whole duty of man, and kill one another at that game. What a country! What a world!”

PeopleThinkingMenWorldCountryMatterWholeGamesJusticeSimpleHonestyReadyDutyLike YouMoralityTenGunHandleTemptationInchesStrainRespectableExplosivesBurstingRespectabilityTruth And HonestyTruth And Justice
Book:The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
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“Tell a scoundrel, three or four times a day, that he is the pink of probity, and you make him at least the perfection of "respectability" in good earnest. On the other hand, accuse an honorable man, too petinaciously, of being a villain, and you fill him with a perverse ambition to show you that you are not altogether in the wrong.”

MenShowsHandsThreeFourAmbitionPerfectionRevengeVillainHonorablePersecutionEarnestScoundrelsRespectabilityHonorable ManProbity
Author:Edgar Allan Poe
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