Salterton Trilogy Quotes

“A slovenly action, thrice repeated, has become a habit.”

“Experience is wine, and art is the brandy we distill from it.”

“St. Clement's was Broad, with a tendency to become Low under stress.”

“Oh, Wally, never go to law for simple vengeance; that's not what law is for. Redress, yes; vengeance, no.”

“"Music is like wine, Bridgetower," he had said; "the less people know about it, the sweeter they like it."”

“"Wet", said he. Classics was his subject, and he sometimes affected a classical simplicity in social conversation.”

“Pretence is wonderfully stimulating to the artistic mind, which is why some people lie for fun, rather than from necessity.”

“It seems quaint to those whose own personalities are not strongly marked and whose intellects are infrequently replenished.”

“His reply had that clarity, objectivity and reasonableness which is possible only to advisers who have completely missed the point.”

“Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.”

“Moral judgements belong to God, and it is part of God's mercy that we do not have to undertake that heavy part of His work, even when the judgement concerns ourselves.”

“The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.”

“His key seemed to make a shattering noise in the lock. And when he entered the hall, which was in darkness, maternal solicitude and pique embraced him like the smell of cooking cabbage.”

“Most hearts of any quality are broken on two or three occasions in a lifetime. They mend, of course, and are often stronger than before, but something of the essence of life is lost at every break.”

“"Fool!" said the Professor, who had been growing very hot, and was now at the boil. "Do you imply that the sins of the mind are trivial and the sins of the flesh important? What kind of an idiot are you?"”

“The Forresters, as they told everyone they met, had "neither chick nor child". Their failure to have a chick never provoked surprise, but it was odd that they were childless; they had not sought that condition.”

“In her latest speech she had scored a double; she had condemned Griselda's legs because they were beautiful, and sneered at poor Pearl Vambrace's because they were not. Mrs Bridgetower had indeed benefited from higher education.”

“During the first day or two she attempted to get on with War and Peace, but found it depressing, and as time wore on she suffered from that sense of unworthiness which attacks sensitive people who have been rebuffed by a classic.”

“And because he had been born to this lot, he accepted it without question; as children always do, and as some adults continue to do, he invented reasons why he should be as he was, instead of seeking for means by which he might be delivered from his fate.”

“Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in that spirit, he can find much to confirm him in his belief, particularly if he has never examined any short period of the past in day-to-day detail.”