Not to understand the doer is to have no certain knowledge of what has been done, or why it was undertaken
Philip WylieThe novelist now usurps the chair of the educator, the pulpit of the preacher, the columns of the journalist. Yet his original purpose of entertaining may have been his highest purpose. (introduction to Gladiator, Book League Monthly, 1930)
Philip WylieIgnorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.
Philip WylieMaterial blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache.
Philip WylieA few suits of clothes, some money in the bank, and a new kind of fear constitute the main differences between the average American today and the hairy men with clubs who accompanied Attila to the city of Rome.
Philip WylieThe first gold star a child gets in school for the mere performance of a needful task is its first lesson in graft.
Philip WylieMan's destiny lies half within himself, half without. To advance in either half at the expense of the other is literally insane.
Philip WylieCommon man has at long last got himself so far out of gear with nature and his environment that he is beginning to see the shape of extinction, whether he recognizes it as such or not.
Philip WylieOur history is every human history; a black and gory business, with more scoundrels than wise men at the lead, and more louts than both put together to cheer and follow.
Philip WylieI don't like people--much. This kind, I mean. And they don't like me at all, as a rule. Maybe the latter explains the former.
Philip WylieThe mealy look of men today is the result of momism and so is the pinched and baffled fury in the eyes of womankind.
Philip WylieIn Western society, and particularly in American society, imagination is stulified from infancy. The imaginative child is discouraged and upbraided. He is told that the process is mere dreaming, that it wastes time and leads nowhere. It is said to be "impractical." As the child grows and its imagination inevitably leads it to express unconventional ideas and to try new behavior, it is chided and even viciously punished for such signs of unorthodoxy.
Philip Wylie