It is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then like most cliches, that cliche is untrue. Stephen Fry More Quotes by Stephen Fry More Quotes From Stephen Fry It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me. Stephen Fry laughterdepressionbeauty I want you to know that you are not alone in your being alone. Stephen Fry cousinknowswant Better sexy and racy Than sexist and racist Stephen Fry sexistracistsexy Self pity is the worst possible emotion anyone can have. And the most destructive. It is, to slightly paraphrase what Wilde said about hatred, and I think actually hatred's a subset of self pity and not the other way around - 'It destroys everything around it, except itself.' Stephen Fry hatredselfthinking The English language is an arsenal of weapons. If you are going to brandish them without checking to see whether or not they are loaded, you must expect to have them explode in your face from time to time. Stephen Fry languageweaponsfaces I knew I couldn't believe in God, because I was fundamentally Hellenic in my outlook. Stephen Fry believe-in-godoutlookbelieve Hell, I am young. I am free. My teeth are clean. The sun shines. To hell with everything else Stephen Fry teethshininglife People still don't get how astounding Darwinism is. People think what shocked everybody was that Charles Darwin seemed to be saying we had descended from apes. Stephen Fry apespeoplethinking I have always been an impassioned advocate for the works of Shakespeare. I regard him as one of the most complete miracles of his or any other age. Stephen Fry regardmiracleage There comes a time when the blankness of the future is just so extreme, it's like such a black wall of nothingness. Not of bad things like a cave full of monsters and so, you're afraid of entering it. It's just nothingness, the void, emptiness and it is just horrible. It's like contemplating a future-less future and so you just want to step out of it. The monstrosity of being alive overwhelms you. Stephen Fry wallblackdepression I shouldn't be saying this, high treason really, but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there. Stephen Fry wondermaysometimes Oscar Wilde quite rightly said, 'All art is useless'. And that may sound as if that means it's something not worth supporting. But if you actually think about it, the things that matter in life are useless. Love is useless. Wine is useless. Art is the love and wine of life. It is the extra, without which life is not worth living. Stephen Fry winemeanart I have written it before and am not ashamed to write it again. Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today -- whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me. But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind. Stephen Fry teenagewritingyears They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment. Stephen Fry strivecomedybears As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth. Stephen Fry victoryregretgovernment I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler's anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian 'correctively' raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew at seeing history repeat itself. Stephen Fry teenagersuicidemother Nothing in this world is at it seems. Except, possibly, porridge. Stephen Fry porridgefunworld Mind you, Mount Rushmore isn't exactly the Parthenon or the Sistine Chapel either. After the naïve daftness of the Crazy Horse monument, I find the pompous idiocy of those four presidents somehow more risible still. Wishing to show respect or feel a vicarious thrill of admiration and pride, I can only giggle. For which I am very sorry. Any loyal American reading this who feels outraged and insulted is free to explode with derisive snorts of laughter at any British equivalent. Stephen Fry horselaughtersorry I believe in kindness and niceness and lots of spiritual things, but the real intellectual rigor and quest of logic is something that I'm afraid takes incredibly hard work and we live in an age in which hard work is if not actively deprecated or denigrated it is run away from or ignored. Stephen Fry spiritualkindnessrunning When we understand every single secret of the universe, there will still be left the eternal mystery of the human heart. Stephen Fry mysterysecretheart
