Quote

Civilization is a fiction which becomes a fact only as long as everyone can believe in it. It is the cynic, rather than the rebel, who pulls down the whole flimsy structure periodically throughout history.

Helen McCloy

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Helen McCloy
Age: 90 †
Born: 1904
Born: June 6
Died: 1994
Died: December 1
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
New York City
New York
Helen Worrell Clarkson McCloy
Whole
Civilization
Long
Fiction
Flimsy
Believe
Becomes
Periodically
Rather
Cynic
Fact
Pulls
Everyone
Rebel
History
Throughout
Facts
Structure

More quotes by Helen McCloy

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... law is a substitute for love.
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Even a small, everyday lie is a clue to the personality and preoccupations of the liar, like a dream or any other confection of the mind, that is half-conscious and half-unconscious, as all creative acts must be.
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At twenty your choices are almost unlimited. At fifty you're a prisoner of past decisions. At seventy you have no free will left at all.
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the true and the plausible are rarely the same.
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Privacy is like sleep - something you don't appreciate until you have to go without it.
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Nobody believes in ghosts, but everybody is afraid of them.
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Everything you do in war is a crime in peace
Helen McCloy
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Every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints. And he can't wear gloves to hide them.
Helen McCloy
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money is an acquired taste that grows as it is fed.
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Diamonds are the tears of the poor.
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Habit is far stronger than the lessons of experience.
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the old ploy of the powerful: never refuse when you can confuse. Distraction and delay are always better than obstruction.
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There's always trouble in the Middle East. I can't recall any time in my life when there hasn't been trouble there.
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fiction and lies are both works of creative art, and creation always reveals the creator.
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what you fear, you invite.
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most of our social and educational institutions are designed to weed out or make over people ... until we produce a world where everyone is a smart, quick-witted, aggressive person living on the surface of the mind without ever looking into the depths.
Helen McCloy
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That's the worst thing about money - the moment you have some you begin to suspect everyone of trying to take it away from you. And usually they are.
Helen McCloy