431 Quotes by Evelyn Waugh

Who asked you to the funeral anyway? Were you acquainted with the late parrot?

Yes, I was determined to have a happy Christmas' 'Did you?' 'I think so. I don't remember it much, and that's always a good sign, isn't it?

...the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.

..perhaps all our lovers are merely hints and symbols; vagabond languages scrawled on gate-posts and paving stones along the weary road that others have trampled before us; perhaps you and I are types and this sadness which sometimes falls between us springs from disappointment in our search, each straining through and beyond each other, snatching a glimpse now and then of the shadow which turns the corner always a pace or two ahead of us.

The best I can tell you in that way is that I’m much more at ease with fellow-Catholics than I am with heathens or Protestants. One has so many basic assumptions in common that there’s so much that doesn’t need saying, and when you’re talking to even the most amusing and intelligent heathen you suddenly find that something you’ve said has no meaning at all to them.

Have you at any time been detained in a mental home or similar institution? If so, give particulars.''I was at Scone College, Oxford, for two years,' said Paul.

The cream and hot butter mingled and overflowed separating each glucose bead of caviar from its fellows, capping it in white and gold.

Had he not suffered unscathed the fearful dooms of all the offended gods, of all the histories, fire, brimstone, and yawning earthquakes, plague, and pestilence? Had he not stood, like the Pompeian sentry, while the Citadels of the Plain fell to ruin about his ears?

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.