When you are getting on in years (but not ill, of course), you get very sleepy at times, and the hours seem to pass like lazy cattle moving across a landscape.

James Hilton

Categorized in : Moving Years Book

Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value - the ultimate value of what one does.

cost doe thinking

Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it not be better if more people were slackers?

might people world

If I had a child who wanted to be a teacher, I would bid him Godspeed as if he were going to war. For indeed the war against prejudice, greed, and ignorance is eternal, and those who dedicate themselves to it give their lives no less because they may live to see some fraction of the battle won.

teacher war children

I dislike organized games, swimming pools, fashionable resorts, night clubs, music in restaurants, and political manifestoes; I enjoy driving from coast to coast, good food and drink, a few friends, dogs, the theatre, long walks, music and free conversation.

swimming dog night

There's only one thing more important... and that is, after you've done what you set out to do, to feel that it's been worth doing.

important done feels

if we have not found the heaven within,we have not found the heav... by James Hilton

if we have not found the heaven within,we have not found the heaven without

ifs found heaven

The right mixture of caring and not caring - I suppose that's wha... by James Hilton

The right mixture of caring and not caring - I suppose that's what love is.

mixtures caring love

People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.

mistake life believe

Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue. by James Hilton

Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue.

virtue laziness stupid

The exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom. by James Hilton

The exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom.

exhaustion passion

And I believe that the Binomial Theorem and a Bach Fugue are, in the long run, more important than all the battles of history.

running war believe

What a host of little incidents, all deep-buried in the past -- problems that had once been urgent, arguments that had once been keen, anecdotes that were funny only because one remembered the fun. Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory; and if that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation? He must be kind to them, must treasure them in his mind before their long sleep.

home fun memories

If you forgive people enough you belong to them, and they to you, whether either person likes it or not squatter's rights of the heart.

rights heart people

We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid gove... by James Hilton

We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much.

governing too-much believe

You will have Time, that rare and lovely gift that your Western countries have lost the more they have pursued it.

lovely lost country

This storm you talk of . . .t will be such a one, my son, as the world has not seen before. There will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. It will rage till every flower of culture is trampled, and all human things are leveled in a vast chaos.

safety flower son

In a small cathedral town where changes are few, there are always people who remember who used to live in a particular house, what happened to them there and afterwards, and so on.

house book people

There are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen.

comfortable all-things happens

It's a very remarkable story." "Remarkable's a well-chosen word.... by James Hilton

It's a very remarkable story." "Remarkable's a well-chosen word. It doesn't give you away.

remarkable stories giving

When it comes to believing things without actual evidence, we all incline to what we find most attractive.

evidence attractive believe