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
dungeon self serving
We are all serving a life-sentence in the dungeon of self
mistake reality interesting
A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. It is not interesting to be always unhappy, engrossed with oneself, malignant and ungrateful, and never quite in touch with reality.
pain bad-relationship two
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another.
two people mind
Two weeks before his death, a friend asked him half jokingly if he had discovered any meaning in life. "Yes," he replied, "there is a meaning; at least, for me, there is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."
god pessimistic disappointing
There cannot be a personal God without a pessimistic religion. As soon as there is a personal God he is a disappointing God.
stupid power bored
The English masses are lovable: they are kind, decent, tolerant, practical and not stupid. The tragedy is that they are too many of them, and that they are aimless, having outgrown the servile functions for which they were encouraged to multiply. One day these huge crowds will have to seize power because there will be nothing else for them to do, and yet they neither demand power nor are ready to make use of it; they will learn only to be bored in a new way.
love greed comfort
Greed, like the love of comfort, is a kind of fear.
love parent desire
Except for poverty, incompatibility, opposition of parents, absence of love on one side and of desire to marry on both, nothing stands in the way of our happy union.
men fats thin-man
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
self dungeons prison
We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
growing-up moving son
Boys do not grow up gradually. They move forward in spurts like the hands of clocks in railway stations.
writing watches world
A great writer created a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.
dream memories reading
There is immunity in reading, immunity in formal society, in office routine, in the company of old friends and in the giving of officious help to strangers, but there is no sanctuary in one bed from the memory of another. The past with its anguish will break through every defense-line of custom and habit; we must sleep and therefore we must dream.
life mazes walks
Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learned to walk.