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81 " My friend who runs marathons, throws elaborate parties, sews quilts for everyone she knows, works full-time, and has three children does all of this not in spite of her useless husband but because of him. "
― Sarah Manguso , 300 Arguments: Essays
82 " With each of his new misfortunes I'm punished further, with secret guilt, for wishing all of it on him, long ago. "
83 " I was like that once, and I'm not like that anymore. "
84 " Assume that the most annoying person you know, the one who won't leave you alone, is in love with you. "
85 " It is nothing less than sabotage. "
86 " I understood things then. Somehow I became confused in the ensuing years. "
87 " When I kissed him goodnight he said, Again! and I kissed him again. "
88 " Sincerity that pure was impossible to include in my life then, and I had to turn away. It was like looking at the sun. "
89 " Perfect happiness is the privilege of deciding when things end. But then you have to find a new happiness. "
90 " But I'm doing her a favor, letting her escape her suffering into mine. "
91 " When I indulge in envy, I envy everyone who has ever achieved anything. "
92 " The most likable person you know just might be a sociopath. "
93 " I suspect competence follows from an ability to believe oneself competent. "
94 " Worry is impatience for the next horror. "
95 " Maybe that's what I should be wishing for instead. "
96 " Most of those who tried to be the best failed. So I tried to be the second-best, and sometimes I succeeded. "
97 " I don't know myself as well as I used to. "
98 " I realize I don't envy them exactly; I envy a hybrid monster with some qualities of each woman but all of neither—a monster I dreamt up specifically to envy. "
99 " You aren't the same person after a good night's sleep as you are after a sleepless night. But which person is you? "
100 " Does the first time matter that much? "