Cyril Connolly ✓

(1903–1974) novelist United Kingdom

153 quotes in 1880 categories

[Wikidata] British author (1903–1974)... | [Wikipedia] Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon (1940–49) and wrote Enemies of Promise (1938), which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author o

Best Cyril Connolly Words

• We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament, and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy. Appeals
• The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little… Always Calm
• Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise. Becomes
• The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river… Architecture
• Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium. Apathy
• Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in… Action
• When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types. Faithful
• The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence. Any
• Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to… Altogether
• As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers. Become Policemen
• Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel, a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature. Classic
• For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act? Act
• Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. Art
• Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control. Authorities
• The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet. Cynical
• There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say. Crazy
• There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall. Art
• Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of life. Garlic
• Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising. Call
• Words today are like the shells and rope of seaweed which a child brings home glistening from the beach and which in an hour have… Beach
• There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another... It is when we begin to hurt those whom we… All
• Beneath this mask of selfish tranquility nothing exists except bitterness and boredom. I am one of those whom suffering has made empty and frivilous: each… Beneath
• While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living. Alive
• There are only three things which make life worth living: to be writing a tolerably good book, to be in a dinner party of six,… Book
• The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married. Bondage

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