Tennyson seems to be the patron saint of the wishy washies, which is perhaps why I admire him so much, not only as a poet, but as a man. A. N. Wilson More Quotes by A. N. Wilson More Quotes From A. N. Wilson The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational. A. N. Wilson insatiable-hungerawakeningmath It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another. A. N. Wilson sadnessjoypeople I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher. A. N. Wilson laptopsfake-peopleteacher Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life. A. N. Wilson angelliarsbelieve Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not. A. N. Wilson shadowwritingfeels Fear of death has never played a large part in my consciousness - perhaps unimaginative of me. A. N. Wilson fear-of-deathconsciousness I'm like Jane Austen - I work on the corner of the dining table. A. N. Wilson austendiningtables My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria. A. N. Wilson queenswritingbook I think I became a Catholic to annoy my father. A. N. Wilson catholicfatherthinking Since Einstein developed his theory of relativity, and Rutherford and Bohr revolutionised physics, our picture of the world has radically changed. A. N. Wilson physicstheoryworld I don't write books inadvertently. A. N. Wilson writingbook I don't think you can tell the objective truth about a person. That's why people write novels. A. N. Wilson writingpeoplethinking In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all. A. N. Wilson politicalcheerpast I think one of the very frightening things about the regime of the National Socialists is that it made people happy. A. N. Wilson regimespeoplethinking Watching a whole cluster of friends, and my own mother, die over quite a short space of time convinced me that purely materialist 'explanations' for our mysterious human existence simply won't do - on an intellectual level. A. N. Wilson spaceintellectualmother I'm not saying all publishers have to be literary, but some interest in books would help. A. N. Wilson interesthelpingbook As Hitler himself later enunciated, it matters not how idiotic the creed, what matters is the firmness with which it is enunciated. A. N. Wilson firmnesscreedswhat-matters I'm boring. My beliefs are neither here nor there. A. N. Wilson boringbelief In general, Hitler embodied the view of any popular newspaper. A. N. Wilson newspapersviews I was once naïve enough to ask the late Duke of Devonshire why he liked the town of Eastbourne. He replied with a self-deprecating shrug that one of the things he liked was that he owned it. A. N. Wilson townsupper-classself
