87 Quotes by James Hilton

I often think that the Romans were fortunate; their civilization reached as far as hot baths without touching the fatal knowledge of machinery.

And there’s another thing, too – it don’t hurt when you chip me about it. Thick-skinned and tenderhearted, that’s my mixture.

The will of God or the lunacy of man – it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things.

He was not much of a nature-worshipper, but he perceived that nature here was certainly at her best and liveliest. He gave her, as it were, full marks and a nod of approval, feeling that she would do very nicely as a background to his satisfying emotions.

It did not require a great deal of imagination to picture a world in which power had passed into the hands of Al Capones with their private bombing squadrons.

For London, Blampied claimed, was of all cities in the world the most autumnal – its mellow brickwork harmonizing with fallen leaves and October sunsets, just as the etched grays of November composed themselves with the light and shade of Portland stone. There was a charm, a deathless charm, about a city whose inhabitants went about muttering, “The nights are drawing in,” as if it were a spell to invoke the vast, sprawling creature-comfort of winter.

He was a wanderer between two worlds and must ever wander...

If I could put it into a very few words, dear sir, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds – even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself.

You cannot judge the importance of things by the noise they make.