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The American language is in a state of flux based upon survival of the unfittest.

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
States
Survival
Communication
Based
State
Society
American
Upon
Language
Flux

More quotes by Cyril Connolly

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Doing is overrated, and success undesirable, but the bitterness of failure even more so.
Cyril Connolly
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The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.
Cyril Connolly
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The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication.
Cyril Connolly
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The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.
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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.
Cyril Connolly
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There is no fury like an ex-wife searching for a new lover.
Cyril Connolly
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How many books did Renoir write on how to paint?
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The man who is master of his passions is Reason's slave.
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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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Today the function of the artist is to bring imagination to science and science to imagination, where they meet, in the myth.
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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.
Cyril Connolly
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Miserable Orpheus who, turning to lose his Eurydice, beholds her for the first time as well as the last.
Cyril Connolly
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When in doubt, choose greatness.
Cyril Connolly
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Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.
Cyril Connolly
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Failure on the other hand is infectious. The world is full of charming failures (for all charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others) and unless the writer is quite ruthless with these amiable footlers, they will drag him down with them.
Cyril Connolly
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A woman's desire for revenge outlasts all her other emotions.
Cyril Connolly
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Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice journalism what will be grasped at once.
Cyril Connolly
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Marriage is the permanent conversation between two people who talk over everything and everyone until death breaks the record.
Cyril Connolly
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The artist secretes nostalgia around life.
Cyril Connolly
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Like those crabs which dress themselves with seaweed, we wear belief and custom.
Cyril Connolly