Women are repeatedly accused of taking things personally. I cannot see any other honest way of taking them. – Marya Mannes
If American men are obsessed with money, American women are obsessed with weight. The men talk of gain, the women talk of loss, and I do not know which talk is the more boring. – Marya Mannes
In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not. – Marya Mannes
All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction. – Marya Mannes
The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality. – Marya Mannes
It is not enough to show people how to live better: there is a mandate for any group with enormous powers of communication to show people how to be better. – Marya Mannes
In aid, the proper attitude is one omitting gratitude. – Marya Mannes
For every five well-adjusted and smoothly functioning Americans, there are two who never had the chance to discover themselves. It may well be because they have never been alone with themselves. – Marya Mannes
The great omission in American life is solitude; not loneliness, for this is an alienation that thrives most in the midst of crowds, but that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incubator of the spirit. – Marya Mannes
People on horses look better than they are. People in cars look worse than they are. – Marya Mannes
Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, a good mother, good-looking, good-tempered, well-dressed, well-groomed, and unaggressive. – Marya Mannes
