Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes - Page 9

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• The making of miracles to edification was as ardently admired by pious Victorians as it was sternly discouraged by Jesus of Nazareth. Not that the Victorians were unique in this respect. Modern writers also indulge in edifying miracles though they generally prefer to use them to procure unhappy endings, by which piece of thaumaturgy they win the title of realists.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Jesus, Winning, Unique

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2015). “The Mind of the Maker”, p.58, Open Road Media

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• Plain lies are dangerous.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Lying, Dangerous

  1937 'The Psychology of Advertising', inThe Spectator,19 Nov.

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• I say, I don’t think the human frame is very thoughtfully constructed for this sleuthhound business. If one could go on all fours, or had eyes in ones knees, it would be a lot more practical’… ‘What luck! Here’s a deep, damp ditch on the other side, which I shall now proceed to fall into.’ A slithering crash proclaimed that he had carried out his intention.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Fall, Eye, Thinking

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Clouds of Witness”, p.60, Open Road Media

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• Wimsey stooped for an empty sardine-tin which lay, horribly battered, at his feet, and slung it idly into the quag. It struck the surface with a noice like a wet kiss, and vanished instantly. With that instinct which prompts one, when depressed, to wallow in every circumstance of gloom, Peter leaned sadly against the hurdles and abandoned himself to a variety of shallow considerations upon (1) The vanity of human wishes; (2) Mutability; (3) First love; (4) The decay of idealism; (5) The aftermath of the Great war; (6) Birth-control; and (7) The fallacy of free-will.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  War, Kissing, First Love

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• I think this co-operative scheme is an uncommonly good one. It's much easier to work on someone else's job than one's own - gives one that delightful feelin' of interferin' and bossin' about, combined with the glorious sensation that another fellow is takin' all one's own work off one's hands.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Jobs, Thinking, Hands

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2011). “The Complete, Annotated Whose Body?”, p.53, Peschel Press

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• this is the weakness of most 'edifying' or 'propaganda' literature. There is no diversity...You cannot, in fact, give God His due without giving the devil his due also.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Giving, Diversity, Devil

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• And then, at night, the lit lamp and the drawn curtain, with the flutter of the turned page and soft scrape of pen on paper the only sounds to break the silence between quarter- and quarter-chime.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Night, Silence, Sound

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Gaudy Night”, p.290, Open Road Media

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• He was being about as protective as a can-opener.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Protective, Protectiveness

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Gaudy Night”, p.396, Open Road Media

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• It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Dream, Real, Wish

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• You're thinking that people don't keep up old jealousies for twenty years or so. Perhaps not. Not just primitive, brute jealousy. That means a word and a blow. But the thing that rankles is hurt vanity. That sticks. Humiliation. And we've all got a sore spot we don't like to have touched.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Hurt, Mean, Blow

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2013). “The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death”, p.187, Open Road Media

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• It's not the innocent young things that need gentle handling--it's the ones that have been frightened and hurt.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Hurt, Needs, Innocent

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2013). “The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death”, p.568, Open Road Media

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• [O]ne can scarcely be frightened off writing what one wants to write for fear an obscure reviewer should patronise one on that account.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Writing, Want, Obscure

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• It's very good of you--" "No, no, not at all. It's my hobby. Not proposing to people, I don't mean, but investigating things. Well, cheer-frightfully-ho and all that. And I'll call again, if I may." "I will give the footman orders to admit you," said the prisoner, gravely, "you will always find me at home.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Love, Cheer, Home

  DOROTHY L. SAYERS (1963). “STRONG POISON”

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• If it were not for the war, this war would suit me down to the ground.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  War, Suits, Ifs

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• The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Running, Writing, Hype

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• Well, it seems like a miracle to be able to look forward-to-to see all the minutes in front of one come hopping along with something marvellous in them, instead of just[Pg 295] saying, Well, that one didn't actually hurt and the next may be quite bearable if only something beastly doesn't come pouncing out--

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Hurt, Miracle, Looks

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• It is the first duty of a gentleman to remember in the morning who he went to bed with the night before.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Morning, Night, Gentleman

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• The artist's knowledge of his own creative nature is often unconscious; he pursues his mysterious way of life in a strange innocence.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Artist, Creative, Way

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• the autobiography is at one and the same time a single element in the series of the writer's created works and an interpretation of the whole series.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Elements, Interpretation, Autobiography

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2010). “Mind of the Maker”, p.71, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Anythin' wrong leaves a kind of impression on the eye; brain trots along afterwards with the warnin'.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Eye, Brain, Kind

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Lord Peter Views the Body”, p.179, Open Road Media

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• Birth is beastly - and death - and digestion, if it comes to that. Sometimes when I think of what's happening inside me to a beautiful suprème de sole, with the caviare in boats, and the croûtons and the jolly little twists of potato and all the gadgets - I could cry. But there it is, don't you know.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Beautiful, Thinking, Twists

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club”, p.257, Open Road Media

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• Britain possesses no climate, only weather.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Weather, Climate, England

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• Well-bred English people never have imagination.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  People, Imagination, England

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Clouds of Witness”, p.207, Open Road Media

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• Nothing is more vulgar than a careful avoidance of beginning a letter with the first person singular.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Letters, Firsts, Vulgar

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2013). “The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death”, p.162, Open Road Media

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• It is impossible for human nature to believe that money is not there. It seems so much more likely that the money is there and only needs bawling for.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Believe, Needs, Impossible

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Busman's Honeymoon”, p.177, Open Road Media

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