Joseph Epstein Quotes

I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.

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One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes to the mail, I feel it is better to receive than to give.

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I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.

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We do not choose to be born...We do not--most of us, choose to die, or the times or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live--Courageously or in cowardice, Honorably or dishonorably, With purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial. What makes us significant is what we DO, Or REFUSE TO DO. WE DECIDE and WE CHOOSE--and so we give definition to our lives.

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By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.

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The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.

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Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.

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In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

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We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.

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The decisive moment in the defeat of upper class, capital-S, Society may have come when, in newspapers all over the nation, what used to be call the Society page was replaced by the Style section.

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I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks.

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I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.

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No one has really ever defined what a friend is.

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I suppose it's because beer is connected to football broadcasts and the rest of it. Beer . . . accompanies male activities.

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I think the story is my form.

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I am the heterosexual Truman Capote.

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Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.

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I should prefer to die laughing, and, on more than one occasion, thought I might.

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Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.

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I know how deeply slothful I am.

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My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.

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I am married to someone I love.

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I am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me.

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One of the pleasures of being a Jew, I don't have to tell you, it allows you anti-Semitism.

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We know the ideal isn't where the action is.

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