104 Quotes by Nevil Shute

Maybe we've been too silly to deserve a world like this.

The news did not trouble her particularly; all news was bad, like wage demands, strikes, or war, and the wise person paid no attention to it. What was important was that it was a bright, sunny day; her first narcissi were in bloom, and the daffodils behind them were already showing flower buds.

I'm glad we haven't got newspapers now. It's been much nicer without them.

The thing most worth doing in this modern world [is to] create jobs that men can work at, and be proud of, and make money by their work.

Aircraft do not crash of themselves. They come to grief because men are foolish, or vain, or lazy, or irresolute or reckless. One crash in a thousand may be unavoidable because God wills it so - not more than that.

It's no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.

Everybody pays lip service to the safety of the aeroplane, but nobody is prepared to pay for it.

After two wars, I have been in danger too often to bother very much about being killed, and when it comes, I would prefer that it should happen in an aeroplane, since aeroplanes have been the best part of my life.

When I was first sent from H.M.S. King Alfred to be interviewed by Goodeve in the Admiralty, I was furious. The War seemed to me, in June of 1940, to be desperately serious, and England in imminent peril of invasion.