Who said “Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers -- they seem to…”?

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John Cheever. A published source records them saying or writing it.

SourceThe Late Forties and the Fifties, 1955 entry.

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“Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers -- they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery.”
— John Cheever
VerifiedThe Late Forties and the Fifties, 1955 entry. · evidenceDelinquency
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Cite this quote

For academic work, cite the original where you can: The Late Forties and the Fifties, 1955 entry..

APA

Cheever, J. (n.d.). Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers -- they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery. [Quotation]. Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/12532-strange-and-predatory-and-truly-dangerous-car-thieves/

MLA

Cheever, John. “Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers -- they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery.” Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/12532-strange-and-predatory-and-truly-dangerous-car-thieves/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Cheever, John. “Strange and predatory and truly dangerous, car thieves and muggers -- they seem to jeopardize all our cherished concepts, even our self-esteem, our property rights, our powers of love, our laws and pleasures. The only relationship we seem to have with them is scorn or bewilderment, but they belong somewhere on the dark prairies of a country that is in the throes of self-discovery.” Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/12532-strange-and-predatory-and-truly-dangerous-car-thieves/.

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More quotes by John Cheever

“Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil -- not the strength to choose between the two.”
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“My veins are filled, once a week with a Neapolitan carpet cleaner distilled from the Adriatic and I am as bald as an egg. However I still get around and am mean to cats.”
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“The organizations of men, like men themselves, seem subject to deafness, near-sightedness, lameness, and involuntary cruelty. We seem tragically unable to help one another, to understand one another.”
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“The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony.”
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All 9 John Cheever quotes →