239 Quotes by Cyril Connolly

The greatest problem with women is how to contrive that they should seem our equals.

When every unkind word about women has been said, we have still to admit, with Byron, that they are nicer than men. They are more devoted, more unselfish and more emotionally sincere. When the long fuse of cruelty, deceit and revenge is set alight, it is male thoughtlessness which has fired it.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” – “Meglio scrivere per se stessi e non avere un pubblico piuttosto che scrivere per gli altri e non essere se stessi”.

A rune for the very bored: when very bored say to yourself: “It was during the next twenty minutes that there occurred one of those tiny incidents which revolutionizes the whole course of our life and alter the face of history. Truly we are the playthings of enormous fates.

A life based on reason will always require to be balanced by an occasional bout of violent and irrational emotion, for instinctual drives must be satisfied.

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union.

No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, - something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.

Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate; a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.