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People rarely do what they don't want to.

Peter De Vries

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Peter De Vries
Age: 83 †
Born: 1910
Born: February 27
Died: 1993
Died: September 28
Editor
Novelist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Rarely
Action
People

More quotes by Peter De Vries

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We must love one another, yes, yes, that's all true enough, but nothing says we have to like each other. It may be the very recognition of all men as our brothers that accounts for the sibling rivalry, and even enmity, we have toward so many of them.
Peter De Vries
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What people believe is a measure of what they suffer.
Peter De Vries
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A politician is a man who can be verbose in fewer words than anyone else.
Peter De Vries
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I tried to write worse but it was no good my generalizations came out as before, each more exquisite than the last. I grew discouraged.
Peter De Vries
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... it is a fact universally acknowledged that a husband is the most ridiculous thing on earth, except for a bachelor.
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Words fashioned with somewhat over precise diction are like shapes turned out by a cookie cutter.
Peter De Vries
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The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.
Peter De Vries
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Why is the awfulness of families such a popular reason for starting another?
Peter De Vries
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There are times when breakfast seems the one thing worth getting up for.
Peter De Vries
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Rather than waste precious time arguing, I went up and started serving my sentence without delay. It was usually about an hour for epigrams somewhat longer for a paradox.
Peter De Vries
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Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.
Peter De Vries
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It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
Peter De Vries
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The rich aren't like us, they pay less taxes.
Peter De Vries
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A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.
Peter De Vries
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I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
Peter De Vries
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The trouble with treating people as equals is that the first thing you know they may be doing the same thing to you.
Peter De Vries
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My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too.
Peter De Vries
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Pain is the question mark turned like a fishhook in the human heart.
Peter De Vries
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Are you pro- or anti-macassar?
Peter De Vries
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What we are assigned to bear is in a sense a measure of our stature.
Peter De Vries