Quote

There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.

P. D. James

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

P. D. James
Age: 94 †
Born: 1920
Born: August 3
Died: 2014
Died: November 27
Member Of The House Of Lords
Novelist
Politician
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Phyllis Dorothy James
Phyllis Dorothy James
Baroness James of Holland Park
Phyllis James
Baroness Phyllis Dorothy James
Writing
Experiment
Even
Experiments
Every
Scientist
Time
Discovery
Learning
Comes
Science
Write

More quotes by P. D. James

Image
Suicide is the most private and mysterious of acts, inexplicable because the chief actor is never there to explain it.
P. D. James
Image
we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.
P. D. James
Image
Every island to a child is a treasure island.
P. D. James
Image
Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future.
P. D. James
Image
If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?
P. D. James
Image
It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.
P. D. James
Image
We English are good at forgiving our enemies it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends.
P. D. James
Image
Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted.
P. D. James
Image
the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.
P. D. James
Image
Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.
P. D. James
Image
I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art.
P. D. James
Image
There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country.
P. D. James
Image
read widely, not in order to copy someone else's style, but to learn to appreciate and recognize good writing and to see how the best writers have achieved their result. Poor writing is, unfortunately, infectious and should be avoided.
P. D. James
Image
What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.
P. D. James
Image
The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.
P. D. James
Image
First-class travel, provided one hasn't to pay for it oneself, is the most insidiously addictive of life's luxuries.
P. D. James
Image
In youth we take egregious risks because death has no reality for us. Youth goes caparisoned in immortality. It is only in middle age that we are shadowed by the awareness of the transitoriness of life.
P. D. James
Image
It shows considerable wisdom to know what you want in life and then to direct all your energies towards getting it.
P. D. James
Image
People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?
P. D. James
Image
Childhood is the one prison from which there's no escape, the one sentence from which there's no appeal. We all serve our time.
P. D. James