Joseph Epstein Quotes & Sayings

“Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.”

“Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.”

“My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.”

“The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.”

“Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.”

“I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.”

“I know how deeply slothful I am.”

“Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.”

“I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.”

“In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.”