190 Quotes by T.H. White

I am a failure in the world. I do not rule people, nor deceive them for the sake of power, nor try to swindle their livelihood into my own possession. I say to them: Please go freely on your way, and I will do my best to follow mine. Well then, Maria, although this is not a fashionable way of going on, nor even a successful one, it is a thing which I believe in – that people must not tyrannize, nor try to be great because they are little.

Merlyn was a staunch conservative, which was rather progressive of him, when you reflect that he was living backwards.

You could not give up a human heart as you could give up drinking. The drink was yours, and you could give it up: but your lover’s soul was not your own: it was not at your disposal; you had a duty towards it.

An ordinary fellow, who did not spend half his life torturing himself by trying to discover what was right so as to conquer his inclination towards what was wrong, might have cut the knot which brought their ruin.

Leave well alone.

Were they, for some purpose almost too cunning for belief, only disguised as themselves?

Unfortunately we have tried to establish Right by Might, and you just can’t do that.

He could do what all men wanted to, that is, fly.

So little time to pass?” said Merlyn, and a big tear ran down to the end of his nose.