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
small-numbers civilization people
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
civilization luxury goal
The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
country past civilization
Civilization is an active deposit which is formed by the combustion of the Present with the Past. Neither in countries without a Present nor in those without a Past is it to be discovered.
civilization next decadence
The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
civilization forgiven civilized
The civilized are those who get more out of life than the uncivilized, and for this we are not likely to be forgiven.
master passions
The person who is master of their passions is reason's slave.
argue arms lifetime main river splitting truth
Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river.
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.