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
fat imprisoned man thin wildly
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signaling to be let out
men fats thin-man
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
beautiful women thinking
Beautiful women must think about their beauty as capitalists think about their investments or politicians about their majorities; it is all they have to insure their places in the world.
animal thinking misery
When we have ceased to love the stench of the human animal, either in others or in ourselves, then are we condemned to misery, and clear thinking can begin.
stupid intelligent thinking
The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe.
wisdom thinking lazy
If one is too lazy to think, too vain to do a thing badly, too cowardly to admit it, one will never attain wisdom.
art develops equals imagination liquid nostalgia reality snapshot solution
Imagination equals nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality
life fear publishing-books
As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.
weed lying flower
A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; - such is our personality.
alive becomes literature living words
While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living
faithful grow loyal older situations types
When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow more loyal to situations and to types
call gods whom
Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first call promising.
absolute art entire grand requires
Art is an absolute mistress; she will not be coquetted with or slighted; she requires the most entire self-devotion, and she repays with grand triumphs.
condemned himself lazy starts talents whatever
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he starts out, have condemned himself to second-rate thoughts, and to second-rate friends