The great omission in American life is solitude. . . that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incinerator of the spirit. - Marya Mannes
The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. - Marya Mannes
All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction. - Marya Mannes
Generosity with strings is not generosity; It is a deal. - Marya Mannes
Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, a good mother, good-looking, good-tempered, well-dressed, well-groomed, and unaggressive. - Marya Mannes
Borders are scratched across the hearts of men, by strangers with a calm, judicial pen, and when the borders bleed we watch with dread the lines of ink along the map turn red. - 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
All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction. - Marya Mannes