Quote

I was once naïve enough to ask the late Duke of Devonshire why he liked the town of Eastbourne. He replied with a self-deprecating shrug that one of the things he liked was that he owned it.

A. N. Wilson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

A. N. Wilson
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: January 1
Biographer
Historian
Novelist
Teacher
Writer
Stone
Staffordshire
Andrew Norman Wilson
Towns
Liked
Deprecating
Late
Shrug
Asks
Duke
Self
Dukes
Enough
Owned
Things
Replied
Town

More quotes by A. N. Wilson

Image
Since Einstein developed his theory of relativity, and Rutherford and Bohr revolutionised physics, our picture of the world has radically changed.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.
A. N. Wilson
Image
Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.
A. N. Wilson
Image
The latest research has revealed that women have a higher IQ than men.
A. N. Wilson
Image
We, while noting many things amiss about Victorian society, more often sense them judging us.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher.
A. N. Wilson
Image
In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people - the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same.
A. N. Wilson
Image
History does not eliminate grievances. It lays them down like landmines.
A. N. Wilson
Image
Brain power improves by brain use, just as our bodily strength grows with exercise. And there is no doubt that a large proportion of the female population, from school days to late middle age, now have very complicated lives indeed.
A. N. Wilson
Image
A busybody's work is never done.
A. N. Wilson
Image
If you read about Mussolini or Stalin or some of these other great monsters of history, they were at it all the time, that they were getting up in the morning very early. They were physically very active. They didn't eat lunch.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I'm boring. My beliefs are neither here nor there.
A. N. Wilson
Image
If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that's obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that's honey.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I think that if you can't be loyal to the Church, it's best to get out.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I'm like Jane Austen - I work on the corner of the dining table.
A. N. Wilson
Image
In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.
A. N. Wilson
Image
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
A. N. Wilson
Image
Fear of death has never played a large part in my consciousness - perhaps unimaginative of me.
A. N. Wilson
Image
It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim.
A. N. Wilson
Image
I don't think you can tell the objective truth about a person. That's why people write novels.
A. N. Wilson