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Theodore Dalrymple Quotes - Page 2

Obesity is the result of a loss of self-control. Indeed, loss of self-control might be said to be the defining social (or anti-social) characteristic of our age: public drunkenness, excessive gambling, promiscuity and

Obesity is the result of a loss of self-control. Indeed, loss of self-control might be said to be the defining social (or anti-social) characteristic of our age: public drunkenness, excessive gambling, promiscuity and common-or-garden rudeness are all examples of our collective loss of self-control.

Theodore Dalrymple
Loss, Garden, Gambling

How many people does each of us know who claim to seek happiness but freely choose paths inevitably leading to misery?

Theodore Dalrymple
People, Doe, Path
Theodore Dalrymple (2005). “Our Culture, What's Left of it: The Mandarins and the Masses”, Ivan R Dee

Childhood in large parts of modern Britain, at any rate, has been replaced by premature adulthood, or rather adolescence. Children grow up very fast but not very far. That is why it is possible for 14 year olds now to establish friendships with 26 year olds - because they know by the age of 14 all they are ever going to know.

Theodore Dalrymple
Children, Growing Up, Years
"Our Culture, What’s Left Of It". Interview with Jamie Glazov, archive.frontpagemag.com. August 31, 2005.

Life is a biography, not a series of disconnected moments, more or less pleasurable but increasingly tedious and unsatisfying unless one imposes a purposive pattern upon them.

Theodore Dalrymple
Patterns, Biographies, Life Is
Theodore Dalrymple (2003). “Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass”, p.163, Ivan R. Dee

The idea that man is a tabula rasa, or Mao's sheet of blank paper upon which the most beautiful characters can be written, is an old one with disastrous implications. I do not think though that the cults you mention could survive honest thought about human nature.

Theodore Dalrymple
Beautiful, Character, Men
"State of Humbug". Interview with Bernand Chapin, spectator.org. January 25, 2008.

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