Margaret Halsey Professions : Writer Born : February 13, 1910 Died : February 4, 1997 Browse All Authors Top 98 quotes by Margaret Halsey What I know about money, I learned the hard way – by having had it. Margaret Halsey hard-way knows way The important thing about human beings is not what they do, but why they do it. Margaret Halsey motivation important humans The idea is that inside every human being, however unprepossessing, there is a glorious, talented, and overwhelmingly attractive personality. Nonsense. Inside each of us is a mess of unruly, primitive impulses, and these can sometimes, under the strenuous self-discipline and dedication of art, result in notable creativity. Margaret Halsey dedication creativity art Reality is above all else a variable, and nobody is qualified to say that he or she knows exactly what it is. As a matter of fact, with a firm enough commitment, you can sometimes create a reality which did not exist before. Margaret Halsey variables reality commitment Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters. Margaret Halsey littles character people in race relations, the single gesture and the single individual are more often than not doomed to failure. Only the group and the long-term, undeviating policy make much headway. ... if you want to make the world a better place, the first thing you must accept is the fact that you cannot transcend your limitations as an individual. Margaret Halsey racism race long As one might expect in a society with mass communications and mass markets, the pseudo-ethic says that whatever is popular, is right. Where the traditional ethic derives its sanction from the superiority of a few, the pseudo-ethic derives its sanction from the inferiority of a great many. The pseudo-ethic is keyed, not to the spiritually gifted, but to the spiritually ungifted. Margaret Halsey inferiority communication culture Democracy makes many taxing demands on its practitioners, but suspension of the intelligence is not one of them. Margaret Halsey suspension demand democracy There are dozens of ways of failing to make money. It is one thing to fail to make money because your single talent happens to be a flair amounting to genius for translating the plays of Aristophanes. It is quite another thing to fail to make money because you are black, or a child, or a woman. Margaret Halsey black play children Equality is an unconscious assumption, and if you feel you are treating someone as an equal, then you are not doing it. Margaret Halsey equality assumption feels The position of children as a group, in a commercial society, is not wholly advantageous. A commercial society urges its citizens to be responsible for things, but not for people. It is the unquestioned assumption of a mercantile culture that things need and deserve attention, but that people can take care of themselves. Margaret Halsey business children people A business society, therefore, always has in its children a large group of individuals who cannot make money and who do not understand (or want to understand) the profit motive. In short, they are subversives. Margaret Halsey groups business children The stress laid on upward social mobility in the United States has tended to obscure the fact that there can be more than one kind of mobility and more than one direction in which it can go. There can be ethical mobility as well as financial, and it can go down as well as up. Margaret Halsey mobility one-direction stress Identity is not found, the way Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Identity is built. Margaret Halsey pharaohs daughter identity The business society is interested in training its citizens to make money, and, in this objective, it is often successful. Many of them do make money, and the ones who do not obligingly regard themselves as failures who have wasted the precious gift of life. Margaret Halsey training business successful Humorists are not humorous twenty-four hours a day. In fact, when you get to know them well, they are often not humorous at all. They tend to be hypersensitive, taut, neurotic creatures driven by God know what obscure compulsion to earn their living the hard way. Margaret Halsey four humorous way The people who say you are not facing reality actually mean that you are not facing their idea of reality Margaret Halsey mean reality ideas the crucial disadvantage of aggression, competitiveness and skepticism as national characteristics is that these qualities cannot be turned off at five o'clock. Margaret Halsey clock competition quality the psychological attitudes which are indispensable in the American market place are disastrous to family life. Family life ... requires yieldingness, generosity, sympathy, altruism, tenderness-all the qualities, in fact, which lead straight to bankruptcy. ... the American family is tragically out of gear with the profit structure which has mushroomed up around it. Margaret Halsey generosity quality attitude Our Republic is not a pastoral, not a military, not an agricultural, not a nomadic, not a clerical, but a business civilization. Nor is there anything random, casual or accidental about the United States as a business society. It is thoroughly well integrated - organized from top to bottom for the maximum efficiency of commerce and industry, for the maximum efficiency of making money. Margaret Halsey united-states military civilization Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. 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