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We may never know why Joe Ellis fabricated a heroic past. But we know that the life he embellished has deeply diminished the life he'd earned.
Ellen Goodman
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Ellen Goodman
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: April 11
Journalist
Newton
Massachusetts
Past
May
Embellished
Never
Ellis
Life
Fabricated
Diminished
Earned
Heroic
Deeply
More quotes by Ellen Goodman
Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe and aren't even aware of.
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In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.
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Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.
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I vote because it's what small-d democracy is about. Because there are places where people fight for generations and stand for hours to cast a ballot knowing what we ought to remember: that it makes a difference. Not always a big difference. Not always an immediate difference. But a difference.
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I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box.
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We each have a litany of holiday rituals and everyday habits that we hold on to, and we often greet radical innovation with the enthusiasm of a baby meeting a new sitter. We defend against it and - not always, but often enough - reject it. Slowly we adjust, but only if we have to.
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Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present.
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It has begun to occur to me that life is a stage I'm going through.
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Women have gained access to the institutions, but not enough power to overhaul them.
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The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.
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You can fire your secretary, divorce your spouse, abandon your children. But they remain your co-authors forever.
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The great myth of our work-intense era is 'quality time.' We believe we can make up for the loss of days or hours, especially with each other, by concentrated minutes. But ultimately there is no way to do one-minute mothering. There is no way to pay attention in a hurry.
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Without even knowing it, we are assaulted by a high note of urgency all the time. We end up pacing ourselves to the city rhythm whether or not it's our own. In time we even grow hard of hearing to the rest of the world. Like a violinist stuck next to the timpani, we may lose the ability to hear our own instrument.
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Ultimately, time is all you have and the idea isn't to save it, but to savour it.
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[E]very time you think the entertainment moguls have hit rock bottom, they reach for the jackhammer and rat-a-tat-tat a little deeper.
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We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook?
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We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness.
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