All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.
– Marya Mannes
For every five well-adjusted and smoothly functioning Americans, there are two who never had the chance to discover themselves. It may well be because they have never been alone with themselves.
– Marya Mannes
I don't think the advertisers have any real idea of their power not only to reflect but to mold society.
– Marya Mannes
The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.
– Marya Mannes
The faucet leak, and learn to leave them so.
– Marya Mannes
Who's kidding whom? What's the difference between Giant and Jumbo? Quart and full quart? Two-ounce and big two-ounce? What does Extra Long mean? What's a tall 24-inches? And what busy shopper can tell?
– Marya Mannes
Women are repeatedly accused of taking things personally. I cannot see any other honest way of taking them.
– Marya Mannes
Generosity with strings is not generosity; It is a deal.
– Marya Mannes
The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.
– Marya Mannes
The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality.
– Marya Mannes
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.
– Marya Mannes
In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not.
– Marya Mannes
In aid, the proper attitude is one omitting gratitude.
– Marya Mannes
If American men are obsessed with money, American women are obsessed with weight. The men talk of gain, the women talk of loss, and I do not know which talk is the more boring.