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
Fact
Pulls
Everyone
Rebel
History
Throughout
Facts
Structure
Whole
Civilization
Long
Fiction
Flimsy
Believe
Becomes
Periodically
Rather
Cynic

More quotes by Helen McCloy

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Nobody believes in ghosts, but everybody is afraid of them.
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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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... law is a substitute for love.
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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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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 old ploy of the powerful: never refuse when you can confuse. Distraction and delay are always better than obstruction.
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Diamonds are the tears of the poor.
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money is an acquired taste that grows as it is fed.
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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.
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Habit is far stronger than the lessons of experience.
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fiction and lies are both works of creative art, and creation always reveals the creator.
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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.
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Everything you do in war is a crime in peace
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Every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints. And he can't wear gloves to hide them.
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what you fear, you invite.
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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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