470 Quotes by Dorothy L. Sayers

No,” said Harriet, who had been exercising.

Foster never did anything that was not absolutely correct; this, perhaps, was his real weakness, for it meant that he lacked imagination, both in his work and in handling the men under him.

But you see, I can believe a thing without understanding it. It’s all a matter of training.

A passage is not plain English – still less is it good English – if we are obliged to read it twice to find out what it means.

Work is not primarily a thing one does to live but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.

Oh! are you detecting now?’ ‘Like anything. If you could take the top of my head off, you would see the wheels whizzing round.’ ‘I see. You’re not detecting me, I hope.’ ‘Everybody always hopes that.

In fact, there is perhaps only one human being in a thousand who is passionately interested in his job for the job’s sake. The difference is that if that one person in a thousand is a man, we say, simply, that he is passionately keen on his job; if she is a woman, we say she is a freak.

What was that you called me?’ ‘Oh, Peter – how absurd! I wasn’t thinking.’ ‘What did you call me?’ ‘My lord!’ ‘The last two words in the language I ever expected to get a kick out of. One never values a thing till one’s earned it, does one? Listen, heart’s lady – before I’ve done I mean to be king and emperor.

None of us feels the true love of God till we realize how wicked we are. But you can’t teach people that – they have to learn by experience.