Christmas Holiday

Quotes

1. "God? What has God to do with it? Do you suppose I can look at the misery in which the vast majority of the people live in the world and believe in God? Do you suppose I believe in God who let the Bolsheviks kill my poor, simple father? Do you know what I think? I think God has been dead for millions upon millions of years. I think when he took infinity and set in motion the process that has resulted in the universe, he died, and for ages and ages men have sought and worshipped a being who ceased to exist in the act of making existence possible for them."

   He wondered if there was anything in what she said, this woman with her tragic history and miserable life, that God had died when he created the wide world; and was he lying dead on some vast mountain range on a dead star or was he absorbed into the universe he caused to be?

   p. 131

2. 

   It was like one of those comedies where the sets are good and the clothes pretty, where the dialogue is clever and the acting competent, so that you pass an agreeable evening, but a week later cannot remember a thing about it.

   p. 203

3. 

   It was too sweeping a judgement to be satisfactory; the idea dawned in Charley's mind that perhaps men were more complicated than he had imagined, and if you just said that a man was this or that you couldn't get very far.

   p. 164

4. 

   It looked as though the people we thought we knew best carried secrets that they didn't even know themselves. Charley had a sudden inkling that human beings were infinitely mysterious. The fact was that you knew nothing about anybody.

   p. 213

5. 

   "I'm beginning to think it's very hard to know what to believe in this world."

   p. 239

6. 

   "It's so wonderful to shut out the world for a few hours. Rest, peace, silence, solitude. You would think they were luxuries that only the very rich can afford, and yet they cost nothing. Strange that they should be so hard to come by."

   p. 79

7. 

   The world he knew, the peaceful happy world of the surface, was like a pretty lake in which were reflected the dappled clouds and the willows that grew on its bank, where carefree boys paddled their canoes and the girls with them trailed their fingers in the soft water. It was terrifying to think that below, just below, dangerous weeds waved tentacles to ensnare you and all manner of strange, horrible things, poisonous snakes, fish with murderous jaws, waged an unceasing and hidden warfare.

   p. 163

8. 

   In point of fact, however, they were much more anxious to tell him about their doings than to listen to his.

   p. 247

9. 

   "I don't believe in the god of the Christians who gave his son in order to save mankind. That's a myth. But why should it have arisen if it didn't express some deep-seated intuition in men? I don't know what I believe, because it's instinctive, and how can you describe an instinct with words? I have an instinct that the power that rules us, human beings, animals and things, is a dark and cruel power and that everything has to be paid for, a power that demands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and that though we may writhe and squirm we have to submit, for the power is ourselves."

   p. 240

10. 

    "Aren't you missing a lot of fun? You know, one's young for such a little while."

    p. 43

11. 

    "You know, a thing that has always struck me is people's fiendish eagerness to give anyone away. They pretend it's public spirit, I don't believe a word of it; I don't believe it's even, as a rule anyway, the desire for notoriety; I believe it's just due to the baseness of human nature that gets a kick out of injuring others. There's a whole mass of people who can't wait if they have the chance of doing down someone who's trying to get away with anything."

    p. 154

12. 

    "Stunning, isn't it?" he said then, giving her arm an affectionate pressure.

    "Yes, it's all right. What business is it of yours?"

    Charley turned his head sharply. No one had ever asked him a question like that about a picture before.

    "What on earth d'you mean? It's one of the great portraits of the world. Titian, you know."

    "I daresay. But what's it got to do with you?"

    Charley didn't quite know what to say.

    "Well, it's a very fine picture and it's beautifully painted. Of course it doesn't tell a story if that's what you mean."

    "No, I don't," she smiled.

    "I don't suppose it's got anything to do with me really."

    "Then why should you bother about it?"

    p. 192

That’s all the quotes.

12 quotes in the collection · come back when we add more