Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connollywas a literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizonand wrote Enemies of Promise, which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth10 September 1903
problem should seems
The greatest problem with women is how to contrive that they should seem our equals
believe people given
Most people do not believe in anything very much and our greatest poetry is given to us by those who do.
pain grief tasks
No education is worth having that does not teach the lesson of concentration on a task, however unattractive. These lessons, if not learnt early, will be learnt, if at all, with pain and grief in later life.
women wife lovers
There is no fury like an ex-wife searching for a new lover.
believe beer over-you
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 pronounce this spell over your beer it will go flat,’ we should remain incredulous and Paracelsus, the Alchemists, Aleister Crowley and all the Magi have lived in vain. Yet when I read science I turn magical; when I study magic, scientific.
love doubt would-be
In my religion, there would be no exclusive doctrine; all would be love, poetry, and doubt.
sex revenge war
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 every unkind word about women has been said, we have still to admit, with Byron, that they are nicer than men. They are more devoted, more unselfish and more emotionally sincere. When the long fuse of cruelty, deceit and revenge is set alight, it is male thoughtlessness which has fired it.
abuse dining culture
Dining out is a vice, a dissipation of spirit punished by remorse. We eat, drink, and talk a little too much, abuse all our friends, belch out our literary preferences and are egged on by accomplices in the audience to acts of mental exhibitionism. Such evenings cannot fail to diminish those who take part in them. They end on Monkey Hill.
reality history drug
Everything is a dangerous drug except reality which is unendurable.
opportunity youth missed-opportunity
Youth is a period of missed opportunities.
inspirational nice writing
Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
country nature book
It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book.
happiness passion justice
We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament, and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy.
freedom liberty action
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?