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A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.

P. D. James

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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
Lives
Companionable
Death
Hedgerows
Nature
Meanest
Used
English
Great
City
Men
Streets
Cities
Violence

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The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.
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We English are good at forgiving our enemies it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends.
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The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.
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gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.
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Creativity doesn't flourish in an atmosphere of despotism, coercion and fear.
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A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
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Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.
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It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all to soon, the very words justice, compassion, society, struggle, evil, would be unheard echoes on an empty air.
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Charm is always genuine it may be superficial but it isn't false.
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Unnatural death always provoked a peculiar unease, an uncomfortable realization that there were still some things that might not be susceptible to bureaucratic control.
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There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.
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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?
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Youth goes caparisoned in immortality.
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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.
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however long we have to live, there are never enough springs.
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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.
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