Elizabeth Drew Quotes & Sayings

It takes two to write a letter as much as it takes two to make a quarrel. — Elizabeth Drew

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. — Elizabeth Drew

[On newspapers:] A first draft of history. — Elizabeth Drew

A telling example of what it has all come to can be found in the person of Rick Santorum, the junior Republican senator from Pennsylvania. Elected to the House in 1990 and then the Senate in 1994, Santorum, forty, is the apotheosis of the brash newer member who imposes himself on the working order of the Senate, demonstrates little respect for the institution, becomes a one-man ideological enforcer, and brings down the level of civility. Toothy, with a shock of dark hair, Santorum looks the perfect pol for the television age. Unburdened by brilliance, he makes his impact through pestiferousness. — Elizabeth Drew

And as the story unfolded before the Ervin committee, it began to take on the characteristics of a Russian novel. Someone we had never heard of suddenly emerged as an agent in activities that were almost inconceivable. — Elizabeth Drew

Democracy, like any non-coercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits. — Elizabeth Drew

Language is like soil. However rich, it is subject to erosion, and its fertility is constantly threatened by uses that exhaust itsvitality. It needs constant re-invigoration if it is not to become arid and sterile. — Elizabeth Drew

The world is not run by thought, nor by imagination, but by opinion. — Elizabeth Drew

Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It's a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others. — Elizabeth Drew

We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others. — Elizabeth Drew

How frail and ephemeral is the material substance of letters, which makes their very survival so hazardous. Print has a permanence of its own, though it may not be much worth preserving, but a letter! Conveyed by uncertain transportation, over which the sender has no control; committed to a single individual who may be careless or inappreciative; left to the mercy of future generations, of families maybe anxious to suppress the past, of the accidents of removals and house-cleanings, or of mere ignorance. How often it has been by the veriest chance that they have survived at all. — Elizabeth Drew

The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and "mangled mind" leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict. — Elizabeth Drew

The pain of loss, moreover, however agonizing, however haunting in memory, quiets imperceptibly into acceptance as the currents of active living and of fresh emotions flow over it. — Elizabeth Drew

The Republicans' plan is that if they can't buy the 2012 election they will steal it. — Elizabeth Drew

The inspired scribbler always has the gift for gossip in our common usage he or she can always inspire the commonplace with an uncommon flavor, and transform trivialities by some original grace or sympathy or humor or affection. — Elizabeth Drew

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. — Elizabeth Drew