59 Quotes by Iain Pears

When an experiment was to begin, all women were excluded for fear their irrational natures would influence the result, and an air of fervent concentration descended.

«How do we justify calling ourselves civilised, after all? Is it the books we read? The delicacy of our tastes? Our place in continuing a line of belief ando of common values which strech back a thousand years and more? All this, indeed, but what does it mean? How does it show itself? Are you civilised if you read the right books, yet stand by while your neighbours ara massacred, your lanas laid waste, your cities brought to ruin?»

Besides, it was all very well to criticise the works of others, but in fact it was quite hard, he discovered, to tell a story.

A te trezi, în Roma ca și în oricare alt oraș, e o treabă personală și cel mai bine e să o rezolvi în liniște.

Rosie digested the information, but not the cake. Her mother was strict about eating between meals. 'A fat girl will never find a good man, Rosie,' was her view, handed down to her by Great-aunt Jessie, a woman of many cliches.

I went to the meeting with some trepidation for, although I might have met a wizard before, I had never encountered an Irishman.

Who you are is less important than what you seem.

God forbid that I should ever suffer the shame of publishing a book for money, or of having one of my family so demean themselves. How can one tell who might read it? No worthy book has ever been written for gain, I think;.

For men are held above their fellows by the gossamer of reputation, which is so soft and fragile a breath can blow it away.