Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Quotes

In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good-breeding, and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character.

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.

We all in real life put on these masks - we don't swear when we're around certain people... When we come home, when you're on your own I'm sure you're really different than when you're with your boss.

Everybody puts on airs, regardless of race.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

The worst vulgarity is to avoid vulgarity solely on the grounds that it is vulgar.

On the surface we all act like we all love each other and we're free and easy, and actually we're far more moralistic than any other society I've ever lived in.

I think behind closed doors people behave differently no matter what period we're looking at, because people have to stand up straight in public but can slouch behind closed doors - can you imagine wearing those corsets?

She belongs to a race of delightful women, who never do any harm, whom everybody calls good, and who are very severe on those who do not pretend to be good.

There is the glamour side of it, which allows you to meet great variety of people with whom you simply can have a good time, but there's also the sad side of it that drags you into a superficial and artificial world.

Is it the factitious and the conventional that most surely succeed on earth and in the course of life?

I've grown to love L.A., but it's the most socially awkward place. All these people have come there not to be something but to pretend to be someone trying to be someone.

I don't like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick?

As a rule, I am very careful to be shallow and conventional where depth and originality are wasted.

I begin to grow heartily tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city.

The kind of people who always go on about whether a thing is in good taste invariably have very bad taste.

I loathe and detest people who pretend they don't care what people think about them as if that is a virtue, when it is simply rude.

The things that are considered to be respectable have their roots in unrespectable things.

I'm not out here trying putting on an act like I'm crazy. In my opinion, everyone else is crazy. They're the ones who put on an act for you, doing what they're told in front of the camera.

I want to break down the wall of, you know, you have to put on a jacket and tie, and you have to act a certain way, and you have to know how to order the right kind of wine. All these things have suddenly been built up around jazz and the way it's presented.

I think the celebrities today, not all of them, but just the whole industry frustrates me because it is so fake. People pretend to be, a lot of the time, what they're not.

Everybody's strange everywhere. Most of the trick of being a social animal is pretending you're not. But who do you fool? Nobody worth talking to.

The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.