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The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.

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
Every
Factors
Manure
Luxury
Epoch
Constant
Weariness
Civilization
Superstition
Becomes
Skepticism
Goal
Superstitions
Culture
Decay
Next
Corruption
Decadence

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Sheep with a nasty side.
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Boys do not grow up gradually. They move forward in spurts like the hands of clocks in railway stations.
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In my religion all believers would stop work at sundown and have a drink together.
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In youth the life of reason is not in itself sufficient afterwards the life of emotion, except for short periods, becomes unbearable.
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Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
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The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.
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Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
Cyril Connolly
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How many books did Renoir write on how to paint?
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Civilization is an active deposit which is formed by the combustion of the Present with the Past. Neither in countries without a Present nor in those without a Past is it to be discovered.
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Idleness is only a coarse name for my infinite capacity for living in the present.
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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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The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.
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The American language is in a state of flux based upon survival of the unfittest.
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Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action.
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English Law: where there are two alternatives: one intelligent, one stupid one attractive, one vulgar one noble, one ape-like one serious and sincere, one undignified and false one far-sighted, one short EVERYBODY will INVARIABLY choose the latter.
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The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.
Cyril Connolly
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What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine?
Cyril Connolly
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There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.
Cyril Connolly
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The artist secretes nostalgia around life.
Cyril Connolly
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Youth is a period of missed opportunities.
Cyril Connolly