Jacques Barzun Quotes

Life does not measure up to performing... Performing is perfect.

Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.

Cynicism stems from disappointment. Cynical and faithless people were not always like that. They were filled with possibilities and hope as kids. But they tried and perhaps failed.

When you see somebody who's got a complaining personality, it usually means that they had some vision of what things could be, and they're constantly disappointed by that. I think that would be the camp that I would fall into - constantly horrified by the things people do.

Why does it have to be so hard? Why can't it be a happily-ever-after ride-into-the-sunset feeling all the time?

Disillusion is the last illusion.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything.

If you're looking for perfection, look in the mirror. If you find it there, expect it elsewhere.

My idealism has not abated, but I have witnessed it withering away nationwide, to the point where at least among the young, to have ideals is akin to being blinkered and oldfashioned.

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

All sorts of allowances are made for the illusions of youth, and none, or almost none for the disenchantment of age.

Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.

Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.

predilection, n. The preparatory stage of disillusion.

If you expect perfection from people your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints.

You want perfection, go to a bowling alley!

That sucks, though," Wes said finally, his voice low. "You're just setting yourself up to fail, because you'll never get everything perfect." "Says who?" He just looked at me. "The world," he said, gesturing all around us, as if this party, this deck encompassed it all. "The universe. There's just no way. And why would you want everything to be perfect, anyway?" "I don't want everything to be perfect," I said. Just me, I thought. Somehow. "I just want—

Oh, Teddy, darling, thank you, thank you, for restoring my cynicism. I was too young to lose it.

The only way to keep a dream, any dream at all, to keep a dream perfect and rosy and intact and unsullied is never to live it out.

I think when you are young, you are hoping that this person will be the right one. The one you are going to be in love with forever, but sometimes you want that so much, you create something that isn't really there.

Please don't disillusion me. I haven't had breakfast yet.

Sooner or later, many idealists transform themselves into disheartened realists who mistakenly believe that giving up is the same thing as being realistic.

Do not be afraid of perfection - you will never attain it.

Possessing the ideal makes a person nervous: you sense the inevitable decline just ahead.