The Portable Veblen Quotes

“By clearly emphasizing all that was lacking in others, by mapping and raising to an art form the catalog of their flaws, Veblen’s mother had inversely punched out a template for an ideal human being, and it was the unspoken assumption that Veblen would aspire to this template with all her might.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“When you entered the cavern of another language, you could leave certain people behind, for they had no interest in following you in. You could, by way of translation, emerge from the cavern and share your adventures with them. You didn’t have to be an intellectual in a black beret smoking clove cigarettes to be a translator, not at all. You could become one in your blue flannel pajamas, your face smeared with Clearsil. You did.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Thorstein Veblen would say people hate squirrels, she called up to him, "because that's the only way to motivate expenditure on them - such as buying traps or guns. It's the same with stirring up patriotic emotionalism, because it justifies expenditures for defense.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“A life could be spent like an apology—to prove you had been worth it.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Do you think wishful thinking is a psychiatric condition?”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“The Flying squirrel flies, and the Irksome squirrel irks. The Spinning squirrel spins and the Smirking squirrel smirks. The Crapulous craps and the Lurking lurks; But when the Talking squirrel talks, none but a Listening Human works.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Art is despair with dignity.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“She counted on herself to withstand everything. And yet, who said she had to? What would happen if she broke down now and then?”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Veblen, you may not know it now, but marriage affects everything that happens to you. Your mate becomes the mirror in which you see yourself. If he doesn't see you as a beautiful pearl, you'll wither.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Are you committed to having a really strange life?"

She laughed. "Probably. What do you mean?”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“See? You're using the stoic glacier method."

"Remind me, what's the stoic glacier method?"

"It's the slow process of shaping someone's behavior by force of one's own personal stoicism.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“This town is infested with squirrels, have you noticed?"

"I'd rather say it's rich with squirrels.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“That until now she was a Christmas tree that had been decorated by someone who hated Christmas.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“It bothered Veblen’s mother that most people were lazy and had given up original thought a long time ago, stealing stale phrases from the media like magpies.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“If you love it enough, anything will talk with you.” —G. W. CARVER”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“He says marriage is a continuous inevitable confrontation that can be resolved only through death.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“She had once concluded everyone on earth was a servant to the previous generation—born from the body’s factory for entertainment and use. A life could be spent like an apology—to prove you had been worth it.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“And from a branch in the tall tree, a small gray squirrel released a mighty roar.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“It is one kind of trouble to kiss your fiancé good-bye in the morning and immediately turn your thoughts to another man. But it's another kind altogether if the other man has been dead for nine decades, or is of the genus Sciurus.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“And yet - with those well-marked whiskers, and that topcoat, and the notable scruff, a squirrel who cared and followed you everywhere - wouldn't that be nice?”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“She had a lot of practice standing things because she had to stand them, which was a hard habit to break.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“HER OWN VISION of the future was of happiness in the air. Something was baking. Children were playing games. There were flowers and substantial trees, and birds were singing in their nests. She was living with someone who was laughing.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“She'd let her eyes water so the view was blurry, which gave certain qualities of the world neglected by clear eyesight the chance to come forth, such as the shocking beauty of color, and she remembered this with compassion for that silly young self, which had deserved to have her hand held.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“The skin of the old year was crackling, coming apart, the sewers sweeping it away beneath the roads.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“William Morris, her mother’s hero, had blind spots. He was seen as effete and ridiculous by Professor Veblen after he paid Morris a visit in England. Veblen came home and blasted Morris’s Kelmscott Press and the whole Arts and Crafts movement for producing overly precious items for the wealthy, the only ones who could afford them—decadent aestheticism, he called it.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“While she was by temperament very forgiving to others, she was not inclined to be generous to herself. Nothing offended her more than her own faults, which seemed to be revealing themselves lately with alarming frequency. She was muted and superstitious, stunted and weak, and if she spent much more time thinking about it, she’d have a list that rolled out the door on a scroll. There was no perfect being out there, accepting, intelligent, kind, creative, full of life and appetite. Muckraker, carouser, sweet-toothed, lion-hearted. Or was there? 23”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“Who cares if she called you?” Veblen cried out. There was a time when abreacting to her mother was out of the question, untenable. The slightest ripple between them terrified her. She was aware that her mother had trained her to turn herself inside out, like a pocket to be inspected for pilfered change.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“All right. This might sound like a dumb question, but—what stage of life are you in? Are you young, middle-aged? I know you’re not old.” She checked him out, standing at the back of the cage, spinning an acorn. He was inarguably solid. She said, “I know already. You’re in your prime.” • • • PRIMES CAME in all sizes, and despite popular belief, could come around and around, like trees through the seasons.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“She nodded with earnest sympathy. How many times had she borne witness to her naked mother, running to the bedroom after a shower with a towel pressed to her front? But repeated viewings of her mother’s unclad emotions had been way worse, and had led Veblen to fear depressives. Back then she’d run for cover outside, where she would help frightened grasshoppers escape into the ravine, in danger of her mother’s shears. (When she was in a bad mood, and even when she was in a good mood, Melanie liked to hunt them down and cut them cleanly in half, which made Veblen scream.) She’d pretend she was part of the resistance during World War II, helping grasshopper comrades escape across the border.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen

“My family.” “No! You never mentioned that.” She had noticed an endearing pattern: whenever Paul felt guilty or in need of affection, he’d tell a painful story about his past.”
― Elizabeth Mckenzie, The Portable Veblen