Quotes by
Cyril Connolly |
1903-1974 , British writer
English critic, novelist, and man of letters, founder and editor of Horizon, a magazine of contemporary literature that was a major influence in Britain in its time (1939–50). He wrote Enemies of Promise (1938), which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become a successful author of fiction. | 19 quotes | 1,483 visits |
Quotations
| • | There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say. 10 |
| • | Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate; a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them. 9 |
| • | We love but once, for once only are we perfectly equipped for loving. 5 |
| • | Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising. 4 |
| • | Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to walk. 4 |
| • | Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. 3 |
| • | Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once, and they require separate techniques. 3 |
| • | No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning. 3 |
| • | Everything is a dangerous drug to me except reality, which is unendurable. 3 |
| • | Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signaling to be let out. 3 |
| • | Peace ... is a morbid condition, due to a surplus of civilians, which war seeks to remedy. 3 |
| • | All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others. 3 |
| • | Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of taste. 3 |
| • | A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends. |
| • | Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do. |
| • | Idleness is only a coarse name for my infinite capacity for living in the present. |
| • | A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. It is not interesting to be always unhappy, engrossed with oneself, malignant or ungrateful, and never quite in touch with reality. Neurotics are heartless. |
| • | No education is worth having that does not teach the lesson of concentration on a task, however unattractive. These lessons, if not learnt early, will be learnt, if at all, with pain and grief in later life. |
| • | There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall. |
