Quotes by Jessica Mitford

“Gracious dying is a huge, macabre and expensive joke on the American public.”

“I have nothing against undertakers personally. Its just that I wouldnt want one to bury my sister.”

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

“O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Where, indeed? Many a badly stung survivor, faced with the aftermath of some relatives funeral, has ruefully conceded that the victory has been won hands down by the funeral establishment . . .”

“Things on the whole are much faster in America; people dont stand for election, they run for office.”

“In childbirth, as in other human endeavors, fashions start with the rich, are then adopted by the aspirant middle class with an assist from the ever-watchful media, and may or may not eventually filter down to the poor.”

“Walking through the streets of New Haven (Conn.) with William Sloane Coffin Jr. is like being in a movie about a small-town folk hero. People come up to shake his hand, students run after him with urgent questions, old folks stop their cars to call out, Good luck Bill! and Howdy, Reverend.”

You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.

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.

It is somehow reassuring to discover that the word travel is derived from travail denoting the pains of childbirth.