Cyril Connolly

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

Invention is the mother of necessity.

There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves.

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.

It is the mind that makes good or ill. That which makes us happy or sad; rich or poor.

I’m the one that has to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.

The more a man knows, the more he forgives.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

You must demand nothing less than the best of yourself and for yourself. You must tell yourself that it is not wrong to want it all.

A man can seldom – very, very, seldom – fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past — whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

I’m constantly reemerging in my life.