Quotes By Cyril Connolly

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.

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.

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

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.

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

The dread of lonliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.

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

There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.

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

For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?

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

The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.

Today the function of the artist is to bring imagination to science and science to imagination, where they meet, in the myth.

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

A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.

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

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

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.