Humans have always been interested in identifying and exposing hypocrisy. Many collections of quotations have been written, and many of the entries are clever treatments of human hypocrisy. The term "human hypocrisy" is redundant, for only humans are hypocritical. Indeed, one theory for the evolution of language suggests that the capacity for speech was driven by the payoffs for misleading others. Since hypocrisy is unique to humans, and since it appears to be a "human universal" (found in all cultures), I have coined the term "Homo Hypocritus" as a mocking reference to our species. Misanthropes are people who are profoundly disappointed in the shortcomings of human nature. We are unwilling to surrender hope for the day when humans will remake themselves to be worthy of the lofty opinion they have always had for themselves. Since misanthropes wish for human improvement, it is natural for them to be keen on identifying things needing improvement. Many of the quotations within these pages are material for some future project at converting Homo hypocritus to Homo sapiens. This book consists of two parts. The first 80% is a collection of quotes from the literature that capture the essential hypocritical core of human nature, and the remainder of the book consists of the author's attempts at pithy one-liners. Most of the quotations in this book are "politically correct" - which is to say that some are not. The author does not wish to offend, and is confident that almost anyone will enjoy this collection of quotes.

This book is the first major study of the theme of misanthropy, its history, arguments both for and against it, and its significance for us today. Misanthropy is not strictly a philosophy. It is an inconsistent thought, and so has often been mocked. But from Timon of Athens to Motörhead it has had a very long life, vast historical purchase and is seemingly indomitable and unignorable. Human beings have always nursed a profound distrust of who and what they are. This book does not seek to rationalize that distrust, but asks how far misanthropy might have a reason on its side, if a confused reason. There are obvious arguments against misanthropy. It is often born of a hatred of physical being. It can be historically explained. It particularly appears in undemocratic cultures. But what of the misanthropy of terminally defeated and disempowered peoples? Or born of progressivisms? Or the misanthropy that quarrels with specious or easy positivities (from Pelagius to Leibniz to the corporate cheer of contemporary `total capital`)? From the Greek Cynics to Roman satire, St Augustine to Jacobean drama, the misanthropy of the French Ancien Regime to Swift, Smollett and Johnson, Hobbes, Schopenhauer and Rousseau, from the Irish and American misanthropic traditions to modern women`s misanthropy, the book explores such questions. It ends with a debate about contemporary culture that ranges from the `dark radicalisms`, queer misanthropy, posthumanism and eco-misanthropy to Houellebecq, punk rock and gangsta rap.

Misanthrope, n.: 1.) One who hates mankind; a curmudgeon; a loner; 2.) The guy in your office who responded to your e-mail of baby photos with "D-. Passing, but not college material"; 3.) A Realist From The Misanthrope's Guide to Life In this guide, you'll learn how to get away from the pain-in-the-asses who make you seriously consider investing in a fallout shelter and making it your new home. You'll take isolated comfort in these survival strategies, including how to: Conduct managed incoherence to get the delivery boy from the lobby to your door Take a "French leave" in order to eat alone at work Get ousted from your kickball league by dressing as Magnum, P.I. for every game Get back at the jerk yapping on his cell phone by reciting the lyrics to Harry Chapin's version of "Cat's in the Cradle" End a conversation by "Gwynething" (also known as playing the "I'm delightfully foreign" act) someone to death This is the survival guide you will be annoyed not to have.

Truth is stranger than fiction. If you've imagined famous writers to be desk-bound drudges, think again. Writers Gone Wild rips back the (book) covers and reveals the seamy underside of the writing life. Insightful, intriguing, and irresistibly addictive, Writers Gone Wild reveals such fascinating stories as: * The night Dashiell Hammett hired a Chinese prostitute to break up S. J. Perelman's marriage (and ran off with his wife). * Why Sylvia Plath bit Ted Hughes on the cheek. * Why Ernest Hemingway fought a book critic, a modernist poet, and his war correspondent/wife Martha Gellhorn (but not at the same time). * The near-fatal trip Katherine Anne Porter took while high on marijuana in Mexico. * Why women's breasts sent Percy Bysshe Shelley screaming from the room. * The day Virginia Woolf snuck onto a Royal Navy ship disguised as an Abyssinian prince. Pull up a chair, turn on good reading light, and discover what your favorite writers were up to while away from their desks. Sometimes, they make the wildest characters of all.

The unreconstructed people-hater offers her piece de resistance: a guided tour of the misanthropic life, and an inspirational handbook for Americans grown tired of goo-goo humanitarianism and sensitivity that never sleeps. The only trouble with this book is that its covers are too close together.--The New York Times.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner—a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtly and grace. In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. Here, Morrison’s writing is “so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry” (The New York Times).