Quote #44

It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks latenesses, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patchings to repair great rents in the quotidian.

More from John Updike

  1. An affair wants to spill, to share its glory with the world. No act is so private it does not seek applause.
  2. The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.
  3. Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner.
  4. Sex is like money; only too much is enough.
  5. I must go to Nature disarmed of perspective and stretch myself like a large transparent canvas upon her in the hope that, my submission bei…
  6. By the time a partnership dissolves, it has dissolved.
  7. Zeus had loved his old friend, and lifted him up, and set him among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius. Here, in the Zodiac, now ab…
  8. Time is our element, not a mistaken invader.

All John Updike quotes