British Author Quotations

But let us not too hastily triumph in the shame of Sparta, lest we aggravate our own condemnation.

A human being must have occupation, of he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

We have no right to luxuries while the poor want bread.

Uneasy lies the head that craves the crown.

Next to the love of God, the love of country is the best preventive of crime.

In the western part of England lived a gentleman of large fortune, whose name was Merton.

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life.

But let her remember, that it is in Britain alone, that laws are equally favourable to liberty and humanity; that it is in Britain the sacred rights of nature have received their most awful ratification.

You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

Youth will be served, every dog has his day, and mine has been a fine one.

After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

The trifle now inscribed with your name. was occasioned by a particular fact; but to the disgrace of human nature, the subject is sufficiently general to interest every heart not totally impenetrable.

If a nation wants to live in peace with its neighbors, it doesn't keep rattling the saber at them.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

A losing trade, I assure you, sir: literature is a drug.

I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.

I wil not compare the education of an ancient Spartan with that of a British nobleman.

No country in Europe has a larger proportion of men and women of immigrant descent, mainly from the African continent and mainly Muslim: an estimated six to seven million of them, or more than 10% of the population.

When a benevolent mind contemplates the republic of Lycurgus, its admiration is mixed with a degree of horror.

There are no countries in the world less known by the British than those selfsame British Islands.

As I grow older and older, And totter toward the tomb, I find that I care less and less, Who goes to bed with whom.

All the best stories are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged.

A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.

I don't like it, but this afternoon I've told myself I am going to go and get a dress.

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.

Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.

There are certain forms in which vice appears not only monstrous, but ridiculous; the cruelty of Nero is more disgusting than that of Tiberius.

What we in the community of established liberal democracies should do is not abandon the pursuit of democratisation but refine it.

Let us remember, there is a people, who share the government and name of Britons; among whom the cruelty of Sparta is renewed without its virtue.

I enjoyed writing mysteries out of my imagination as a relief from all that research, and also because I could write them while traveling.

From the beginning of humanity some have been under a compulsion to ask these questions, and have felt a craving for the answers.

If the 20th century taught us anything, it is to be cautious about the work impossible.

Humour is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

King Juan Carlos would be worthy of a full biography as a major player in his country's history. Alas, my Spanish is not good enough to offer myself!

I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre.

I will never forget meeting Suu Kyi in Rangoon - now officially known as Yangon - some six years ago, when she was still able to leave her house.

My philosophy is, unless you're sick and need help, why bother?

I wondered to what extent people remained the same as they'd been when very young; if one peeled back the layers of living one would come to the know child.

Why waste time instructing others when you could be reading the manuscripts yourself? The only exceptions are matters of foreign language.

Who is ready to settle for five minutes when three hours does nicely?

Who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet's heart when caught and tangled in a woman's body?

We were the local cockneys, well I wasn't quite a cockney, but I was certainly enchanted by the contrast between city and village life.

When I started writing, I thought the only way to write books that were set in the country was to go and look at the primroses on Putney Common.

Brittany Murphy... who knows if she's going to be around. Kirsten Dunst, I think she's really boring. Reese Witherspoon? She can open a movie.

As the seventh wife of Henry VIII I hope I would have managed to do the old monster in-my cooking comes to mind, as I am a hopeless cook.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Strategy number one is that I always, or almost always, have at least two or three different things that I'm writing at any one time.

One couldn't help thinking of Princess Diana when writing some passages, although I don't make a mention in the text, which would be anachronistic.

As a woman, I have no country. As a woman my country is the world.

Authors know that you should never really write a funny book because funny books do not get awards. Comic novels will not get awards.

A woman must have money and a room of her own.

You've simply got to go on and on with your family and friends and tell them how much you love them because you never know whether they'll be there tomorrow, do you?

You send a boy to school in order to make friends of the right sort.

American Gods is about 200,000 words long, and I'm sure there are words that are simply in there 'cause I like them. I know I couldn't justify each and every one of them.

The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.

The bank told us we ought to sell this house to pay off our overdraft. Riders saved the day. I was so pleased when it got to number one, I went all around the fields crying and crying.

I've got a book coming out soon so I just must get some weight off.

If you look across the valley, you can see exactly what I mean: about four beautiful houses, and you think something is happening in each of them. It's like a mural.

Canada is rich, so would be a much-needed net contributor to the European budget at a time when the EU has been taking in lots of poorer states.

I consider everywhere I go research, so you will be reading about the Bahamas in a future novel! That's because I like to take my readers with me!

And all these magazines started buying them. And my agent - my now agent - wrote to me and said these would make wonderful novels.

What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

I'm not denying that women are foolish: God almighty made 'em to match the men.

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved.