Ethical Quote by Jonathan Franzen

“Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.”

Jonathan Franzen

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Ethical Growth Integrity Intellectual Reading Social change

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“The fundamental fact about all of us is that we’re alive for a while but will die before long. This fact is the real…

Jonathan Franzen

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Fiction that isn't an author's personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn't worth writing for anything but money.

Jonathan Franzen

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“Parents are programmed to want the best for their kids, regardless of what they get in return. That's what love is supposed to be like, right? But in fact, if you think about it, that's kind of a strange belief. Given what we know about the way people really are. Selfish and shortsighted and egotistical and needy. Why should being…

Jonathan Franzen

“Birds were what became of dinosaurs. Those mountains of flesh whose petrified bones were on display at the Museum of Natural History had done some brilliant retooling over the ages and could now be found living in the form of orioles in the sycamores across the street. As solutions to the problem of earthly existence, the dinosaurs had been pretty…

Jonathan Franzen

“Can a better kind of fiction save the world? There’s always some tiny hope (strange things do happen), but the answer is almost certainly no, it can’t. There is some reasonable chance, however, that it could save your soul. If you’re unhappy about the hatred that’s been unleashed in your heart, you might try imagining what it’s like to be…

Jonathan Franzen

A big part of me would be very proud never having anything of mine adapted, because if you want the real experience, there's only…

Jonathan Franzen

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Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 years of change I dont see how you could…

Jonathan Franzen

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“I'm saying the structure and f the entire culture is flawed, chip said. I'm saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as 'diseased.' A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication then destroys the libido, in other words destroys the appetite for the one…

Jonathan Franzen

Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity, too. They're pure hyena.

Jonathan Franzen

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“An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence tends not to arouse our sympathy as much as other forms of privation do.”

Jonathan Franzen

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He became another data point in the American experiment of self-government, an experiment statistically skewed from the outset, because it wasn't the people with…

Jonathan Franzen

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“It was this motley band of modest peeps and plovers on the beach who reminded me of the human beings I loved best - the ones who didn't fit in. These birds may or may not have been capable of emotion, but the way they looked, beleaguered there, few in number, my outcast friends, was how I felt. I'd been…

Jonathan Franzen

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More Ethical quotes

The concept of humanity is an especially useful ideological instrument of imperialist expansion, and in its ethical-humanitarian form it is a specific vehicle of economic imperialism. Here one is reminded of a somewhat modified expression of Proudhon’s: whoever invokes humanity wants to cheat. To confiscate the word humanity, to invoke and monopolize such a term probably has certain incalculable effects,…

Carl Schmitt

My hope is that if people have the knowledge, and if they actually see where their food comes from and have access to the…

Michael Pollan

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Design certainly has a cosmetic, aesthetic aim. It always aims at making things beautiful. But relevance is just as important. I often say, 'If…

Yves Behar

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What our species needs, above all else, is a generally accepted ethical system that is compatible with the scientific knowledge we now possess.

Anonymous

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Daily contact with some teachers is itself all-sided ethical education for the child without a spoken precept. Here, too, the real advantage of male over female teachers,especially for boys, is seen in their superior physical strength,which often, if highly estimated, gives real dignity and commands real respect, and especially in the unquestionably greater uniformity of their moods and their discipline.

G. Stanley Hall

It is possible to believe in progress as a fact without believing in progress as an ethical principle; but in the catechism of many…

Norbert Wiener

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Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic…

Arthur Schopenhauer

I'm a fan of Hugh Kenner, Richard Ellman, Lionel Trilling and Frank Kermode. All these people have taught me how to read - but…

Philip Kitcher

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Of course, corporations and governments have a right to something for their money. They pay the wages. But they don't have the ethical right to literally purchase the copyright of a citizen's potential contribution to society. In a democracy they should not have the legal right to silence the quasi-totality of the functioning élite in order to satisfy a managerial…

John Ralston Saul

It's silly to have as one's sole object in life just making money, accumulating wealth. I work because I enjoy what I'm doing, and…

Johnny Carson

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Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is almost always dishonest. The writer of the snippet merely refers to a frivolous and fugitive fact in a frivolous and fugitive way. The writer of the leading article has to…

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Undeniably, character does count for our citizens, out communities, and our Nation, and this week we celebrate the importance of character in our individual lives... core ethical values of trustworthiness, fairness, responsibility, caring, respect, and citizenship form the foundation of our democracy, our economy, and our society... Instilling sound character in our children is essential to maintaining the strength of…

William J. Clinton

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Ethical Quote by Jonathan Franzen

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