Elizabeth Drew Quotes

• The world is not run by thought, nor by imagination, but by opinion.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Running, Imagination, World

  45 Copy quote

• The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Inspirational Life, Reading, Literature

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• Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Travel, Fun, Mind

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• People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs. People are very inclined to set moral standards for others.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Motorcycle Gangs, People, Riding

  9 Copy quote

• Language is like soil. However rich, it is subject to erosion, and its fertility is constantly threatened by uses that exhaust itsvitality. It needs constant re-invigoration if it is not to become arid and sterile.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Erosion, Needs, Use

  19 Copy quote

• Democracy, like any non-coercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Understanding, Democracy, Limits

  Elizabeth Drew (2014). “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall”, p.242, The Overlook Press

  9 Copy quote

• The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and "mangled mind" leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Lonely, Frustration, Self

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• We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Pain, Loss, Frustration

  8 Copy quote

• The pain of loss, moreover, however agonizing, however haunting in memory, quiets imperceptibly into acceptance as the currents of active living and of fresh emotions flow over it.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Pain, Memories, Acceptance

  8 Copy quote

• Money buys access; access buys influence.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Influence, Access

  6 Copy quote

• The inspired scribbler always has the gift for gossip in our common usage he or she can always inspire the commonplace with an uncommon flavor, and transform trivialities by some original grace or sympathy or humor or affection.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Sympathy, Gossip, Grace

  Elizabeth Drew (1964). “The Literature of Gossip”

  8 Copy quote

• How frail and ephemeral is the material substance of letters, which makes their very survival so hazardous. Print has a permanence of its own, though it may not be much worth preserving, but a letter! Conveyed by uncertain transportation, over which the sender has no control; committed to a single individual who may be careless or inappreciative; left to the mercy of future generations, of families maybe anxious to suppress the past, of the accidents of removals and house-cleanings, or of mere ignorance. How often it has been by the veriest chance that they have survived at all.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Ignorance, Past, House

  6 Copy quote

• Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It's a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Writing, Self, Names

  7 Copy quote

• [On newspapers:] A first draft of history.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Firsts, Newspapers

  4 Copy quote

• It takes two to write a letter as much as it takes two to make a quarrel.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Writing, Two, Letters

  Elizabeth Drew (1964). “The Literature of Gossip”

  7 Copy quote

• The Republicans’ plan is that if they can’t buy the 2012 election they will steal it.

  Elizabeth Drew

  Election, Republican, Stealing

  "Voting Wrongs" by Elizabeth Drew, www.nybooks.com. September 21, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

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