Jessica Mitford > Quotes

“You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”
― Jessica Mitford

“A thirteen-year-old is a kaleidoscope of different personalities, if not in most ways a mere figment of her own imagination. At that age, what and who you are depends largely on what book you happen to be reading at the moment.”
― Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels

“Objectivity? I always have an objective. ”
― Jessica Mitford

“One is only really inwardly comfortable, so to speak, after one's life has assumed some sort of shape. Not just a routine, like studying or a job or being a housewife, but something more complete than all those, which would include goals set by oneself and a circle of life-time type friends. I think this is one of the hardest things to achieve, in fact often just trying doesn't achieve it but rather it seems to develop almost by accident.”
― Jessica Mitford, Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford

“I discovered that Human Nature was not, as I had always supposed, a fixed and unalterable entity, that wars are not caused by a natural urge in men to fight, that ownership of land and factories is not necessarily the natural reward of greater wisdom and energy.”
― Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels

“she was self-educated, like the great majority of women writers once were (including Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf)—haphazardly but effectively.”
― Jessica Mitford, Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking

“It never occurred to me to be happy with my lot.”
― Jessica Mitford

“Deep sea fishing off Mexico can’t be beat! When you feel that old tug on your pole and that line goes whistling into the deep, that’s it brother! And, there is nothing quite like the way I feel about Wilbert burial vaults either. The combination of a ” pre-cast asphalt inner liner plus extra-thick, reinforced concrete provides the essential qualities for proper burial. My advice to you is, don’t get into “deep water” with burial vaults made of the new lightweight synthetic substitutes. Just keep “reeling in” extra profits by continuing to recommend WILBERT burial vaults....”
― Jessica Mitford, Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking

“From our vantage point in a time when muck is being raked (and flung) vehemently and constantly twenty-four hours a day, the question of effectiveness is overwhelmed by the question of whether any person in America with access to the media remains shockable or persuadable.”
― Jessica Mitford, Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking

“Feeling slightly dizzy from going round in circles...”
― Jessica Mitford, Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking

“Mr. Leon S. Utter, a former dean of the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science, has written, “Your selling plan should go into operation as soon as the telephone rings and you are requested to serve a bereaved family.… Never preconceive as to what any family will purchase. You cannot possibly measure the intensity of their emotions, undisclosed insurance, or funds that may have been set aside for funeral expenses.”
― Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death Revisited