Nelson Algren: Man

Nelson Algren was American novelist, short story writer. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Nelson Algren: 60   quotes 7   likes

“Never on the earth of man has he lived so tidily as here amidst such psychological disorder.”

Nelson Algren book Nonconformity

Nonconformity (1953/1996)
Context: Do American faces so often look so lost because they are most tragically trapped between a very real dread of coming alive to something more than merely existing, and an equal dread of going down to the grave without having done more than merely be comfortable? If so, this is the truly American disease. And would account in part for the fact that we lead the world today in insanity, criminality, alcoholism, narcoticism, psychoanalysm, cancer, homicide and perversion in sex as well as in perversion just for the pure hell of the thing. Never on the earth of man has he lived so tidily as here amidst such psychological disorder. Never has any people lived so hygienically while daily dousing itself with the ritual slops of guilt. Nowhere has any people set itself a moral code so rigid while applying it quite so flexibly.

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

Nelson Algren book A Walk on the Wild Side

In jail, Cross-Country Kline to Dove Linkhorn.
Source: A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
Context: But blow wise to this, buddy, blow wise to this: Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man's jolt. And never you cop another man's plea. I've tried 'em all and I know. They don't work. / Life is hard by the yard, son. But you don't have to do it by the yard. By the inch it's a cinch. And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

Moms , Sleep

“What country is there for a white man who isn't white?”

Nelson Algren

"Algren once asked", quoted by Richard Flanagan, 2005.
Nonfiction works

Country

“A man who won't demean himself for a dollar is a phoney to my way of thinking.”

Nelson Algren

"Algren wrote in a letter in late middle age" (1960s), quoted by Richard Flanagan, 2005.
Nonfiction works

Way , Thinking