Quotes by Joseph Epstein

• The decisive moment in the defeat of upper class, capital-S, Society may have come when, in newspapers all over the nation, what used to be call the Society page was replaced by the Style section.
• In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.
• No one has really ever defined what a friend is.
• Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.
• Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
• One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes to the mail, I feel it is better to receive than to give.
• The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.
• We know the ideal isn't where the action is.
• I am married to someone I love.
• I think the story is my form.
• Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.
• I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.
• I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.
• I know how deeply slothful I am.
• I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.
• I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks.
• I am the heterosexual Truman Capote.
• I should prefer to die laughing, and, on more than one occasion, thought I might.
• I am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me.
• Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.
• By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.