There is nothing to be gained by multiplying social distinctions indefinitely.

Read quote

All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I'd sooner go to my dentist any day.

Read quote

There's only one great evil in the world today. Despair.

Read quote

One of the problems of the vacation is money, father.—"Oh, I shouldn't worry about a thing like that at your age.""You see, I've run rather short.""Yes?" said my father without any sound of interest."In fact I don't quite know how I'm going to get through the next two months.""Well, I'm the worst person to come to for advice. I've never been "short' as you so painfully call it. And yet what else could you say? Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stony-broke?— (Snuffle.) "On the rocks? In Queer Street? Let us say you are in Queer Street and leave it at that. Your grandfather once said to me, "Live within your means, but if you do get into difficulties, come to me. Don't go to the Jews.

Read quote

I know I am awful. But how much more awful I should be without the Faith.

Read quote

Oh, why did nobody warn me? cried Grimes in agony. I should have been told. They should have told me in so many words. They should have warned me about Flossie, not about the fires of hell. I've risked them, and I don't mind risking them again, but they should have told me about marriage. They should have told me that at the end of that gay journey and flower-strewn path were the hideous lights of home and the voices of children.

Read quote

Every Englishman abroad, until it is proved to the contrary, likes to consider himself a traveller and not a tourist.

Read quote

Miss Runcible wore trousers and Miles touched up his eye-lashes in the dining-room of the hotel where they stopped for luncheon. So they were asked to leave.

Read quote

I am sorry to disturb you,' said James politely, 'but these people wished to shoot us.

Read quote

Rex, in his early forties, had grown heavy and ruddy; he had lost his Canadian accent and acquired instead the hoarse, loud tone that was common to all his friends, as though their voices were perpetually strained to make themselves heard above a crowd, as though, with youth forsaking them, there was no time to wait the opportunity to speak, no time to listen, no time to reply; time for a laugh — a throaty mirthless laugh, the base currency of goodwill.

Read quote

As my intimacy with his family grew, I became part of the world which he sought to escape; I became one of the bonds which held him.

Read quote

Success in this world depends on knowing exactly how little effort each job is worth...distribution of energy...

Read quote

Then I knew that the sign I had asked for was not a little thing, not a passing nod of recognition, and a phrase came back to me from my childhood of the veil of the temple being rent from top to bottom.

Read quote

I've always been bad. Probably I shall be bad again, punished again. But the worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy. ... Or it may be a private bargain between me and God, that if I give up this one thing I want so much, however bad I am, He won't quite despair of me in the end.

Read quote

No one could really hate a saint, could they? They can't really hate God either. When they want to Hate Him and His saints they have to find something like themselves and pretends it's God and hate that.

Read quote

The worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him.

Read quote

After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.

Read quote

Then I knew that the sign I had asked for was not a little thing, not a passing nod of recognition, and a phrase came back to me from my childhood of the veil of the temple being rent from top to bottom.

Read quote

One of the problems of the vacation is money, father.—"Oh, I shouldn't worry about a thing like that at your age.""You see, I've run rather short.""Yes?" said my father without any sound of interest."In fact I don't quite know how I'm going to get through the next two months.""Well, I'm the worst person to come to for advice. I've never been "short' as you so painfully call it. And yet what else could you say? Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stony-broke?— (Snuffle.) "On the rocks? In Queer Street? Let us say you are in Queer Street and leave it at that. Your grandfather once said to me, "Live within your means, but if you do get into difficulties, come to me. Don't go to the Jews.

Read quote

I know I am awful. But how much more awful I should be without the Faith.

Read quote

Evelyn Waugh

Books by Evelyn Waugh

Quotes by Evelyn Waugh