“Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously. Then people can't say you're attacking them to excuse your own infractions. Yes, I've heard that plea…. To word it differently, 'You must live up to the popular code if you believe in it; but if you don't believe in it, then you must live up to it!”

— Sinclair Lewis , book Main Street

Main Street (1920)

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Sinclair Lewis 136

American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright 1885–1951

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