Edgar Friedenberg Quotes

Not only do most people accept violence if it is perpetuated by legitimate authority, they also regard violence against certain kinds of people as inherently legitimate, no matter who commits it.

Those who love the young best stay young longer.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

Human life is a continuous thread which each of us spins to his own pattern, rich and complex in meaning. There are no natural knots in it. Yet knots form, nearly always in adolescence.

All weakness tends to corrupt, and impotence corrupts absolutely.

Juvenile delinquency serves many purposes, including that of providing sadistic adults with fantasies suited to their special tastes.

Canadians are more polite when they are being rude than Americans are when they are being friendly.

It is idle to talk of civil liberties to adults who were systematically taught in adolescence that they had none; and it is sheer hypocrisy to call such people freedom loving.

Part of the American dream is to live long and die young.

The teenager seems to have replaced the Communist as the appropriate target for public controversy and foreboding.

What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.

The examined life has always been pretty well confined to a privileged class.

So much of learning to be an American is learning not to let your individuality become a nuisance.