There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.
Doris LessingWhen you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.
Doris LessingWhat the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness.
Doris LessingDoes political correctness have a good side? Yes, it does, for it makes us re-examine attitudes, and that is always useful. The trouble is that, with all popular movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the idea to examine our assumptions, there are twenty rabble-rousers whose real motive is desire for power over others. The fact that they see themselves as antiracists or feminists or whatever does not make them any less rabble-rousers.
Doris Lessing