Norman Mailer Quotes

We love those who can lead us to a place we will never reach without them.

It's not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.

I really am a pessimist. I've always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It's something essentially splendid because it's not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

I've made an ass of myself so many times I often wonder if I am one.

You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.

I think the internet is the greatest waste of time since masturbation was discovered.

The only journey of knowledge is from the depth of one being to the heart of another.

Conservatives are people who look at a tree and feel instinctively that it is more beautiful than anything they can name. But when it comes to defending that tree against a highway, they will go for the highway.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart

There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.

There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will.

Great sex is apocalyptic. There is no such thing as great sex unless you have an apocalyptic moment.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

When the time comes, they won't ask what kind of a Jew you are.

The desire for success lubricates secret prostitution in the soul.