Hesketh Pearson Quotes

• A man's character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Character, Men, Age

  44 Copy quote

• When people are old enough to know better they are old enough to do worse.

  Hesketh Pearson

  People, Enough, Knows

  Hesketh Pearson (1965). “Hesketh Pearson by Himself. (1. Ed.)”, London : Heinemann

  8 Copy quote

• [D]on't grow old. With age comes caution, which is another name for cowardice.... Whatever else you do in life, don't cultivate a conscience. Without a conscience a man may never be said to grow old. This is an age of very old young men.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Men, Names, Age

  11 Copy quote

• Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Book, Beer, Pride

  Common Misquotations introduction (1934)

  8 Copy quote

• Misquotation is the pride and privilege of the learned.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Pride, Privilege, Belief

  Common Misquotations introduction (1934)

  6 Copy quote

• Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Book, Beer, Drink

  4 Copy quote

• I am inclined to think that one's education has been in vain if one fails to learn that most schoolmasters are idiots.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Success, Education, Thinking

  Hesketh Pearson (1965). “Hesketh Pearson by Himself. (1. Ed.)”, London : Heinemann

  7 Copy quote

• Fate stalks us with depressing monotony from womb to tomb, and, when we are least expecting it, deals us a series of crushing blows from behind.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Crush, Depressing, Fate

  Hesketh Pearson (1926). “The whispering gallery: being leaves from a diplomat's diary”

  4 Copy quote

• There is no stronger craving in the world than that of the rich for titles, except that of the titled for riches.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Class, Stronger, Titles

  The Pilgrim Daughters (1961) ch. 6

  7 Copy quote

• Never neglect an opportunity to play leap-frog; it is the best of all games, and, unlike the terribly serious and conscientious pastimes of modern youth, will never become professionalized.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Children, Opportunity, Modern Youth

  Hesketh Pearson (1971). “Beerbohm Tree; his life and laughter”

  4 Copy quote

• An author should be delighted, not annoyed when he hears himself persistently misquoted. He could receive no higher compliment. It proves that the world has frequent and urgent need of his thoughts and will rather change the manner in which he expresses them than do without the things expressed.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Annoyed, Needs, World

  4 Copy quote

• The English public doesn't really like Shakespeare; it prefers football.

  Hesketh Pearson

  Soccer, Football

  Hesketh Pearson (1938). “Thinking it Over: The Reminiscences of Hesketh Pearson”

  4 Copy quote

• Do you believe in God? Perhaps you aren't old enough. The reason old people believe in God is because they've given up believing in anything else, and one can't exist without faith in something.... God is a sort of burglar. As a young man you knock him down; as an old man, you try to conciliate him because he may knock you down. Moral: don't grow old.

  Hesketh Pearson

  God, Believe, Men

  4 Copy quote

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