Gerald Brenan
Gerald Brenan
Edward FitzGerald "Gerald" Brenan, CBE was a British writer and Hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
writing somewhere-else pages
When I write a page that reads badly I know that it is myself who has written it. When it reads well it has come through from somewhere else.
writing age literature
The only test of work of literature is that it shall please other ages than its own.
happy country art
One road to happiness is to cultivate curiosity about everything. Not only about people but about subjects, not only about the arts but about history and foreign customs. Not only about countries and cities, but about plants and animals. Not only about lichened rocks and curious markings on the bark of trees, but about stars and atoms. Not only about your friends but about that strange labyrinth we inhabit which we call ourselves. Then, if we do that, we will never suffer a moment's boredom....
death war age
Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.
time acquisition imitation
Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.
artist people world
Every writer and artist wonders what in the world people of other professions can find to live for.
together helping harmony
One of the marks of a great poet is that he creates his own family of words and teaches them to live together in harmony and to help one another.
morning attitude writing
It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.
anniversary wedding husband
In a happy marriage it is the wife who provides the climate, the husband the landscape.
business thinking words-of-wisdom
Those who have money think that the most important thing in the world is love. The poor know it is money.
quality bad-qualities ridiculous
We confess our bad qualities to others out of fear of appearing naive or ridiculous by not being aware of them.
giving age aging
Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.
wisdom views opinion
Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.
butterfly people leisure
We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.