Top 8 Quotes by Henry Fairlie

The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has

The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has retired from history to pet itself.

Henry Fairlie

Believe, Greatness, Destiny

"Paralysis in a Risk-Free Society" by Henry Fairlie, www.washingtonpost.com. July 22, 1979.

The most important fact about our shopping malls, as distinct from the ordinary shopping centers where we go for our groceries, is that we do not need most of what they sell, not even for our pleasure or entertainment, not really even for a sensation of luxury. Little in them is essential to our survival, our work, or our play, and the same is true of the boutiques that multiply on our streets.

Henry Fairlie

Play, Shopping, Luxury

Henry Fairlie (1979). “The Seven Deadly Sins Today”

The foundation of humility is truth. The humble man sees himself as he is. If his depreciation of himself were untrue,... it wouldnot be praiseworthy, and would be a form of hypocrisy, which is one of the evils of Pride. The man who is falsely humble, we know from our own experience, is one who is falsely proud.

Henry Fairlie

Humble, Humility, Pride

Henry Fairlie (2015). “The Seven Deadly Sins Today”, p.47, University of Notre Dame Pess

We are at full stop. We think we have arrived.

Henry Fairlie

Ignorance, Thinking

Love wants to enjoy in other ways the human being whom it has enjoyed in bed; it looks forward to having breakfast.

Henry Fairlie

Bed, Looks, Breakfast

Henry Fairlie (1979). “The Seven Deadly Sins Today”

But in the morning Lust is always furtive. It dresses as mechanically as it undressed and heads straight for the door, to return to its own solitude. Like all the sins, it also makes us solitary. It is self-abdication at the very core of one's own being, a surrender of our need and ability to give and receive. Lust does not come with open hands, certainly not with an open heart. It comes only with open legs.

Henry Fairlie

Morning, Heart, Doors

Henry Fairlie (2015). “The Seven Deadly Sins Today”, p.128, University of Notre Dame Pess

There is a middlebrow snobbery in America that praises everything on public television and disdains everything on the commercial networks as a blight.

Henry Fairlie

America, Television, Praise