Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenbergerwas an American critic and author. He was a novelist and biographer, and wrote extensively on drama and the 18th century...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth9 December 1904
CountryUnited States of America
Louis Kronenberger quotes about
sick age ethics
If it is the great delusion of moralists to suppose that all previous ages were less sinful than their own, then it is the great delusion of intellectuals to suppose that all previous ages were less sick.
love-relationship old-love our-relationship
The closer and more confidential our relationship with someone, the less we are entitled to ask about what we are not voluntarily told.
details boring worst
Highly educated bores are by far the worst; they know so much, in such fiendish detail, to be boring about.
effort age bling
Ours is not so much an age of vulgarity as of vulgarization; everything is tampered with or touched up, or adulterated or watered down, in an effort to make it palatable, in an effort to make it pay.
philosophy hands civilization
From the failure of the humanist tradition to participate fully or to act decisively, civilizations may perhaps crumble or perish at the hands of barbarians. But unless the humanist tradition itself in some form survives, there can really be no civilization at all.
revolution conformity rebellion
One of the saddest things about conformity is the ghastly sort of non-conformity it breeds; the noisy protesting, the aggressive rebelliousness, the rigid counter-fetishism.
ambitious busy stairs
The truly ambitious are always as busy on the landings as they are breathless on the stairs.
failure thinking cost
We are neurotically haunted today by the imminence, and by the ignominy, of failure. We know at how frightening a cost one succeeds: to fail is something too awful to think about.
change distance moving
For young people today things move so fast there is no problem of adjustment. Before you can adjust to A, B has appeared leading C by the hand, and with D in the distance.
talking people together
In general, American social life constitutes an evasion of talking to people. Most Americans don't, in any vital sense, get together; they only do things together.
friendship may close-friends
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.
writing men judging
One must never judge the writer by the man; but one may fairly judge the man by the writer.
sleep solitude competition
Today's competitiveness, so much imposed from without, is exhausting, not exhilarating; is unending-a part of one's social life, one's solitude, one's sleep, one's sleeplessness.
moral action ethical
With intellectuals, moral thought is often less a tonic that quickens ethical action than a narcotic that deadens it.