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The past is not the present: pretending it is corrupts art and thus both rots the mind and shrivels the imagination and conscience.

Paul Fussell

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Paul Fussell
Age: 88 †
Born: 1924
Born: March 22
Died: 2012
Died: May 23
Historian
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Military Historian
University Teacher
Writer
Pasadena
California
Art
Rots
Past
Corrupts
Mind
Pretending
Thus
Tradition
Conscience
Present
Imagination
Shrivels

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Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present.
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A more or less accurate measure of class in America is TV size: the bigger your TV, the lower your class.
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What someone doesn't want you to publish is journalism all else is publicity.
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If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down the street hurling grenades in people's faces.
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Americans are the only people in the world known to me whose status anxiety prompts them to advertise their college and university affiliations in the rear window of their automobiles.
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