438 Quotes by John Fowles

The ordinary man is the curse of civilization.

The supposed great misery of our century is the lack of time; our sense of that, not a disinterested love of science, and certainly not wisdom, is why we devote such a huge proportion of the ingenuity and income of our societies to finding faster ways of doing things - as if the final aim of mankind was to grow closer not to a perfect humanity, but to a perfect lightning-flash.

That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.

I mean I never feel I feel what I ought to feel.

...all cynicism masks a failure to cope.

You must make, always. You must act, if you believe something. Talking about acting is like boasting about pictures you're going to paint. The most terrible bad form.

The pronoun is one of the most terrifying masks man has invented.

Time is not a road – it is a room.

Wolves don’t hunt singly, but always in pairs. The lone wolf was a myth.