“The kind of poetry to avoid in the pretty-pretty kind that pleased our grandmothers, the kind that Longfellow and Tennyson, good poets at their best, wrote at their worst.”
Clifton Fadiman, Clifton Fadiman's Fireside Reader“Reading to small children is a specialty.”
Clifton Fadiman, Clifton Fadiman's Fireside Reader“For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.”
Clifton Fadiman“Experience teaches you that the man who looks you straight in the eye, particularly if he adds a firm handshake, is hiding something.”
Clifton Fadiman“To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.”
Clifton Fadiman“A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself.”
Clifton Fadiman“There are two kinds of writers - the great ones who can give you truths and the lesser ones who can only give you themselves.”
Clifton Fadiman“When you travel remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.”
Clifton Fadiman