Cyril Connolly's Quotes

When we have ceased to love the stench of the human animal, either in others or in ourselves, then are we condemned to misery, and clear thinking can begin.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.

We love but once, for once only are we perfectly equipped for loving.

Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.

The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament, and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy.

Greed, like the love of comfort, is a kind of fear.

The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.

When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.

A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.

Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise.

It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book.

The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.

Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action.

Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.

The civilized are those who get more out of life than the uncivilized, and for this we are not likely to be forgiven.

In the sex war, thoughtlessness is the weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female.

It is a mistake to expect good work from expatriates for it is not what they do that matters but what they are not doing.

No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, - something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.

Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.

The worst vice of the solitary is the worship of his food.

As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.