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Quotes by British Authors
"Excessive literary production is a social offense."
"Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb the steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?"
"I've struggled so hard to reign in my temper because it actually terrifies me."
"I knew I was coming home, I thought they would consider acquittal, I was disappointed that they didn't."
"I don't understand, then, why, in the midst of all this, pregnant women - women trying to make rational decisions about their futures and, usually, that of their families, too - should be subject to more pressure about preserving life than, say, Vladimir Putin, the World Bank, or the Catholic Church."
"Like flats of today, terraces of houses gained a certain anonymity from identical facades following identical floor plans and heights."
"Pilots have their names painted just beneath the canopy of their aircraft. This gives the pilot a sense of ownership for his or her jet. What's more, like cars, each aircraft has its own personality, so it's important for a pilot to get to know and love his aircraft."
"An autobiography is the story of how a man thinks he lived."
"I wouldn't know how to handle serenity if somebody handed it to me on a plate."
"In this case it appealed to me partly because it felt close to me in some ways. This is about a confused, bewildered middle class Englishman adrift in smalltown America and that has definitely been me."
"Sometimes you need to move away before you can see where you are."
"The place where optimism flourishes most is the lunatic asylum."
"An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment."
"I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am."
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
"Next year I'm going to be a guesting soloist with orchestras all over Europe, to start off with."
"Fire's the sun, unwindin' itself out o' the wood."
"The light within us dances when we smile."
"Every layer of complexity creates greater distance from life's simple truths."
"Christianity does NOT replace the technical. When he tells you to feed the hungry and doesn't give you lessons in cookery. If you want to learn THAT, you must go to a cook rather than a Christian."
"They're not bombarding me with offers, although the ones that have come along have been too preposterous to contemplate, so it's not as if I spend every day resisting $20 million pay cheques."
"Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it."
"You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another."
"One can spend too much of one's life locked in stuffy rooms seeking out obscure truths, searching, researching, until one is too old to enjoy life."
"We carry within us the wonders we seek without us."
"I never wanted to do political satire because it seems too surface to me."
"You can't reason yourself back into cheerfulness any more than you can reason yourself into an extra six inches in height."
"I was moved beyond words. The train ride over the mountains from lake Titticaca to Cusco reminded me of Africa where I grew up; and 4 days walking on the Inca Trail, then more in the jungle, just magnificent - time, space, and splendour. Our planet is superb!"
"Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again."
"She is up there with the best of them. I can only talk about my experience, but it was genuinely special."
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