Quote

We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all.

Cyril Connolly

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Cyril Connolly
Age: 71 †
Born: 1903
Born: September 10
Died: 1974
Died: November 26
Critic
Literary Critic
Novelist
Writer
Coventry
England
UK
Cyril Vernon Connolly
Late
Waiting
Wish
Symbolically
Keep
Punctual
May
Assume
People
Dues
Assuming
Anxiety

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The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
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When I write after dark the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose.
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As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.
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Poets arguing about modern poetry: jackals snarling over a dried-up well.
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There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.
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Hate is the consequence of fear we fear something before we hate a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them.
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In my religion all believers would stop work at sundown and have a drink together.
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The friendships which last are those wherein each friend respects the other's dignity to the point of not really wanting anything from him.
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An author arrives at a good style when his language performs what is required of it without shyness.
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Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body.
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There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.
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Carelessness is not fatal to journalism, nor are cliches, for the eye rests lightly on them. But what is intended to be read once can seldom be read more than once a journalist has to accept the fact that his work, by its very todayness, is excluded from any share in tomorrow.
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Miserable Orpheus who, turning to lose his Eurydice, beholds her for the first time as well as the last.
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Greed, like the love of comfort, is a kind of fear.
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The only way for writers to meet is to share a quick peek over a common lamp-post.
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Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
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The artist secretes nostalgia around life.
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When in doubt, choose greatness.
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