117 Quotes by Marya Mannes

A seventeenth-century painting can be “modern” because the living eye finds it fresh and new. A “modern” painting can be outdated because it was a product of the moment and not of time.

Know the difference between Giant and Jumbo? Between two-ounce and a big two-ounce? Between a quart and a full quart? What’s a tall 24-inch? What does Extra Long mean? Who’s kidding who?

I would call an intellectual one whose instrument of work – his mind – is also his major source of pleasure; a man whose entertainment is his intelligence.

All people talk of money sometimes, everywhere. But not for all people, everywhere, is money the addiction, the obsession, the stimulant, that it seems to be in New York. It is a large part of the clamor, and it is the voice – quite literally – of the man in the street.

Republicans seems to me to be chiefly concerned with holding on to what they have: in society, it’s position, or respectability, or what you will; in business, of course, it’s profit.

I don’t think the advertisers have any real idea of their power not only to reflect but to mould society.

Hoary idea, in any case, expecting a woman to surrender her name to her husband’s in exchange for his. Why? Would any man submerge his identity and heritage to the woman he wed?

It is not enough to show people how to live better: there is a mandate for any group with enormous powers of communication to show people how to be better.

I don't think the advertisers have any real idea of their power not only to reflect but to mold society.