Quotes by Peter De Vries

About Peter De Vries:

Peter De Vries was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as "probably the funniest writer on religion ever".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Why is the awfulness of families such a popular reason for starting another?

Peter De Vries

How I hate this world. I would like to tear it apart with my own two hands if I could. I would like to dismantle the universe star by star, like a treeful of rotten fruit. Nor do I believe in progress. A vermin-eaten saint scratching his filth for he...

Peter De Vries

I made a tentative conclusion. It seemed from all of this that uppermost among human joys is the negative one of restoration: not going to the stars, but learning that one may stay where one is.

Peter De Vries

Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.

Peter De Vries

The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly.

Peter De Vries

The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.

Peter De Vries

Celibacy is the worst form of self-abuse.

Peter De Vries

When I can no longer bear to think of the victims of broken homes, I begin to think of the victims of intact ones.

Peter De Vries

My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too.

Peter De Vries

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Peter De Vries

The rich aren't like us, they pay less taxes.

Peter De Vries

Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked.

Peter De Vries

Pain is the question mark turned like a fishhook in the human heart.

Peter De Vries

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.

Peter De Vries

Words fashioned with somewhat over precise diction are like shapes turned out by a cookie cutter.

Peter De Vries

We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through.

Peter De Vries

Let us hope...that a kind Providence will put a speedy end to the acts of God under which we have been laboring.

Peter De Vries

Human nature is pretty shabby stuff, as you may know from introspection.

Peter De Vries

I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.

Peter De Vries

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.

Peter De Vries

Author Bio

  • NamePeter De Vries
  • DescriptionNovelist, editor
  • BornFebruary 27, 1910
  • DiedSeptember 28, 1993
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist