41 Quotes by Gerald Brenan

Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

Every writer and artist wonders what in the world people of other professions can find to live for.

One of the marks of a great poet is that he creates his own family of words and teaches them to live together in harmony and to help one another.

It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.

Those who have money think that the most important thing in the world is love. The poor know it is money.

Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people’s values.

The more we feel sorry for ourselves, the less sorry others will feel for us. People don’t waste their small store of sympathy on those who can provide it so richly for themselves.