Doubtless a good general rule for close friendships, where confidences are freely exchanged, is that what one is not informed about, one may not inquire about.

On any morning these days whole segments of the population wake up to find themselves famous, while, to keep matters shipshape, whole contingents of celebrities wake up to find themselves forgotten.

One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame, we have killed off so much real shame as well.

Ours is the country where, in order to sell your product, you don't so much point out its merits as you first work like hell to sell yourself.

Coyness is a rather comically pathetic fault, a miscalculation in which, by trying to veil the ego, we let it appear stark naked.

For tens of millions of people [television] has become habit-forming, brain-softening, taste-degrading.

True individualists tend to be quite unobservant; it is the snob, the would be sophisticate, the frightened conformist, who keeps a fascinated or worried eye on what is in the wind.