Charles Addams Quotes

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”

“America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.”

“Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.”

“Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.”

“Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men.”

“Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.”

“True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.”

“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

“It's hard to say. Sometimes people have had terrible childhoods. And sometimes they just haven't found their special place in life. And sometimes they're dogs from hell and must be destroyed.”

“Education, from Addams' perspective, must not merely make us more adept at defending ourselves against those with different agendas. Education should increase our powers of empathy and our ability to act in concert with others.”