Beneath a mask of selfish tranquility nothing exists except bitterness and boredom. Cyril Connolly More Quotes by Cyril Connolly More Quotes From Cyril Connolly 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. Cyril Connolly literature matter mistake A woman's desire for revenge outlasts all her other emotions. Cyril Connolly women revenge cheating Imagination is nostalgia for the past, the absent it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality. Cyril Connolly reality past art The English masses are lovable: they are kind, decent, tolerant, practical and not stupid. The tragedy is that they are too many of them, and that they are aimless, having outgrown the servile functions for which they were encouraged to multiply. One day these huge crowds will have to seize power because there will be nothing else for them to do, and yet they neither demand power nor are ready to make use of it; they will learn only to be bored in a new way. Cyril Connolly bored power stupid Civilization is an active deposit which is formed by the combustion of the Present with the Past. Neither in countries without a Present nor in those without a Past is it to be encountered. Proust in Venice, Matisse's birdcages overlooking the flower market at Nice, Gide on the seventeenth-century quais of Toulon, Lorca in Granada, Picasso by Saint-Germain-des-Prés: there lies civilization and for me it can exist only under those liberal regimes in which the Present is alive and therefore capable of assimilating the Past. Cyril Connolly nice country lying There cannot be a personal God without a pessimistic religion. As soon as there is a personal God he is a disappointing God. Cyril Connolly pessimistic atheism god There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. Cyril Connolly bad-relationship pain two We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self. Cyril Connolly dungeons jail self Boys do not grow up gradually. They move forward in spurts like the hands of clocks in railway stations. Cyril Connolly growing-up son moving The greatest problem with women is how to contrive that they should seem our equals Cyril Connolly problem should seems A life based on reason will always require to be balanced by an occasional bout of violent and irrational emotion, for instinctual drives must be satisfied Cyril Connolly violent emotion reason Two weeks before his death, a friend asked him half jokingly if he had discovered any meaning in life. "Yes," he replied, "there is a meaning; at least, for me, there is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people." Cyril Connolly mind two people I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an air hole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up. Cyril Connolly air writing book A great writer created 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. Cyril Connolly writing watches world There is immunity in reading, immunity in formal society, in office routine, in the company of old friends and in the giving of officious help to strangers, but there is no sanctuary in one bed from the memory of another. The past with its anguish will break through every defense-line of custom and habit; we must sleep and therefore we must dream. Cyril Connolly grief dream memories The headmistress was an able instructress in French and history and we learned with her as fast as fear could teach us. Cyril Connolly headmistress teach able Everyone has the right to express an opinion. No one has the right to be listened to. Cyril Connolly opinion When in doubt, choose greatness. Cyril Connolly when-in-doubt greatness doubt M is for Marx Cyril Connolly ass movement class The Expulsion from Eden is an act of vindictive womanish spite; the Fall of Man, as recounted in the Bible, comes nearer to the Fall of God. Cyril Connolly eden men fall
