The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence. Cyril Connolly More Quotes by Cyril Connolly More Quotes From Cyril Connolly In a perfect union the man and woman are like a strung bow. Who is to say whether the string bends the bow, or the bow tightens the string? Cyril Connolly unionsperfectmen What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine? Cyril Connolly taughtwinesun Only by avoiding the beginning of things can we escape their end. Cyril Connolly avoidingends Promise is the capacity for letting people down. Cyril Connolly capacitypeoplepromise Miserable Orpheus who, turning to lose his Eurydice, beholds her for the first time as well as the last. Cyril Connolly miserablelastsfirsts Doing is overrated, and success undesirable, but the bitterness of failure even more so. Cyril Connolly overratedbitternessfailure The only happy talkers are dandies who extract pleasure from the very perishability of their material and who would not be able to tolerate the isolation of all other forms of composition; for most good talkers, when they have run down, are miserable; they know that they have betrayed themselves, that they have taken material which should have a life of its own, to dispense it in noises upon the air. Cyril Connolly takenairrunning The disasters of the world are due to its inhabitants not being able to grow old simultaneously. There is always a raw and intolerant nation eager to destroy the tolerant and mellow. Cyril Connolly ablewarworld No one can achieve Serenity until the glare of passion is past the meridian. Cyril Connolly serenitypassionpast When even despair ceases to serve any creative purpose, then surely we are justified in suicide. Cyril Connolly despaircreativesuicide Believing in Hell must distort every judgement on this life. Cyril Connolly atheismjudgementbelieve We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all. Cyril Connolly anxietywaitingpeople It is the fear of middle-age in the young, of old-age in the middle-aged, which is the prime cause of infidelity, that infallible rejuvenator. Cyril Connolly infidelitycausesage Nothing dates like hate and in literature a little of it goes a very long way. Cyril Connolly hateliteraturelong Most of the beauty of women evaporates when they achieve domestic happiness at the price of their independence. Cyril Connolly independenceachievemarriage It is after creation, in the elation of success, or the gloom of failure, that love becomes essential. Cyril Connolly elationessentialslove-is Melancholy and remorse form the deep leaden keel which enables us to sail into the wind of reality; we run aground sooner than the flat-bottomed pleasure-lovers but we venture out in weather that would sink them and we choose our direction. Cyril Connolly runningwindreality Beneath a mask of selfish tranquility nothing exists except bitterness and boredom. Cyril Connolly bitternessboredomselfish Peace ... is a morbid condition, due to a surplus of civilians, which war seeks to remedy. Cyril Connolly morbidwarpeace It is a consolation of human life that the sick forget what it is like to feel well, or the miserable to be happy. Cyril Connolly miserysickforget
