Cyril Connolly

“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 farther up the shore.”

“A ceremony of self-wastage - good talkers are miserable, they know that they have betrayed themselves, that they have taken material which should have a life of its own, to disperse it in no...”

“Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.”

“The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life.”

“The friendships which last are those wherein each friend respects the other's dignity to the point of not really wanting anything from him.”

“The secret of happiness ... is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid, always willing "to be joined to the universe without being more conscious of it than an idiot...”

“Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body.”

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.”

“Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those that do.”

“In the sex-war, thoughtlessness is a weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female. Both are reciprocally generated, but a woman's desire for revenge outlasts all other emotion. Yet when...”

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

“When I write after dark the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose.”

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.”

“As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.”

“It is significant comment on the victory of science over magic that were someone to say ‘if I put this pill in your beer it will explode,’ we might believe them; but were they to cry ‘if I p...”

“Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.”

“Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.”

“Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.”

“There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisd...”

“A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.”