It's easy to get a reputation for wisdom. It's only necessary to live long, speak little and do less. P. D. James More Quotes by P. D. James More Quotes From P. D. James Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future. P. D. James generosity government people Without the hope of posterity, for our race if not for ourselves, without the assurance that we being dead yet live, all pleasures of the mind and senses sometimes seem to me no more than pathetic and crumbling defences shored up against our ruin. P. D. James ruins race mind What was so terrible about grief was not grief itself, but that one got over it. P. D. James over-it terrible grief however long we have to live, there are never enough springs. P. D. James enough spring long All these problems [deciding cases] are easier for people who believe in God. Those of us who don't or can't have to do the best we can. That's what the law is, the best we can do. Human justice is imperfect, but it's the only justice we have. P. D. James law believe people the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven. P. D. James unforgivable forgiven forgiveness gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give. P. D. James commodity gossip giving Unnatural death always provoked a peculiar unease, an uncomfortable realization that there were still some things that might not be susceptible to bureaucratic control. P. D. James peculiar realization might Childhood is the one prison from which there's no escape, the one sentence from which there's no appeal. We all serve our time. P. D. James appeals childhood prison Children live in occupied territory. The brave and the foolhardy openly rebel against authority, whether harsh or benign. But most tread warily, outwardly accommodating themselves to alien mores and edicts while living in secret their iconoclastic and subversive lives. P. D. James brave secret children If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk. P. D. James life-and-death doctors hands For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living. P. D. James goes-on believe thinking Death ... obliterates family resemblance as it does personality: there is no affinity between the living and the dead. P. D. James affinity personality doe we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us. P. D. James forgiveness forgiving long People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death? P. D. James excited violence people Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own. P. D. James more-time solitude loneliness There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment. P. D. James learning writing science We are often more merciful to our animals than we are to each other. P. D. James merciful cat animal The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting. P. D. James contentment secret want It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all to soon, the very words "justice," "compassion," "society," "struggle," "evil," would be unheard echoes on an empty air. P. D. James echoes compassion struggle
