Penelope Fitzgerald

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Surely you have to succeed, if you give everything you have.' 'I don't see why. Everyone has to give everything they have…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

If they don't depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“The barge anchors were unrecognisable as such, more like crustaceans, specimens of some giant type long since discarded by Nature, but still…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

It is interesting to note that everyone has a different take on the world, a different opinion, and given the same inputs…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Behind their dark glass, the mad own nothing.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“La fuerza de voluntad es inútil si no se va a algún lado”

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“You can borrow my Blackbird, if you like,' said Ben. This was his new fountain pen, which troubled him. It was guaranteed…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“She ought to go down to the beach. It was Thursday, early closing, and it seemed ungrateful to live so close to…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

An unjust punishment is never forgotten.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Duty is what no-one else will do at the moment.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Experiences aren't given to us to be 'got over,' otherwise they would hardly be experiences.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“But we weren't meant to live alone,' said Frank. 'Life makes its own corrections.”

— Penelope Fitzgerald

The body, then, has a mind of its own. It must follow, then, that the Mind has a body of its own,…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“All distances are the same to those who don't meet.”

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“Florence had noticed one or two eccentricities in herself lately, which might be the result of hard work, or of age, or…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“Opening the shop gave her, every morning, the same feeling of promise and opportunity. The books stood as neatly ranged as Gipping's…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure short of total abstention.

— Penelope Fitzgerald

A word of advice. If, as a young man, student, you are tormented by a desire for women, it is best to…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“... human beings interested her so much that it must always be an advantage to meet another one.”

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“He was not trained in conservation - he was, after all, no more than an archaeologist - a digger!”

— Penelope Fitzgerald

“She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel…

— Penelope Fitzgerald

I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses…

— Penelope Fitzgerald