Joseph Wood Krutch Quotes (24 Quotes)

As machines get to be more and more like men, men will come to be more like machines.

There is no such thing as a dangerous woman; there are only susceptible men.

What a man knows is everywhere at war with what he wants.

Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude.

If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers.

Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.

It is sometimes easier to head an institute for the study of child guidance than it is to turn one brat into a decent human being.

It is not ignorance but knowledge which is the mother of wonder.

How anyone can profess to find animal life interesting and yet take delight in reducing the wonder of any animal to a bloody mass of fur and feathers is beyond my comprehension.

If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either.

The cockroach and the bird were both here long before we were. Both could get along very well without us, although it is perhaps significant that of the two the cockroach would miss us more.

Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.

The flowers never waste their sweetness on the desert air or, for that matter, on the jungle air. In fact, they waste it only when nobody except a human being is there to smell it. It is for the bugs and a few birds, not for men, that they dye their petals or waft their scents.

Only those within whose own consciousness the sun rise and set, the leaves burgeon and wither, can be said to be aware of what living is.

Few people have ever seriously wished to be exclusively rational. The good life which most desire is a life warmed by passions and touched with that ceremonial grace which is impossible without some affectionate loyalty to traditional form and ceremonies.

Any euphemism ceases to be euphemistic after a time and the true meaning begins to show through. It's a losing game, but we keep on trying.

When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the works of god we call him a sportsman.

Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.

Though many have tried, no one has ever yet explained away the decisive fact that science, which can do so much, cannot decide what it ought to do.

The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.

Technology made large populations possible large populations now make technology indispensable.

A book ... unlike a television program, moving picture or any other modern means of communication ... can wait for years, yet be available at any moment when it happens to be needed.