A. N. Wilson Quotes

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Books Church History Writing

It is the woman - nearly always - in spite of all the advances of modern feminism, who still takes responsibility for the bulk of the chores, as well as doing her paid job. This is true even in households where men try to be unselfish and to do their share.

A. N. Wilson

Jobs, Responsibility, Men

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A busybody's work is never done.

A. N. Wilson

Done, Busybodies

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My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known - not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.

A. N. Wilson

Acceptance, Light, People

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Hitler suffered acutely from meteorism; perhaps he did not suffer so acutely as those around him, since meteorism is uncontrolled farting, a condition exacerbated by Hitler's strictly vegetarian diet.

A. N. Wilson

Vegetarian Diet, Suffering, Diets

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IQ in general has improved since tests first began. Psychologists think that this is because modern life becomes ever more complicated.

A. N. Wilson

Thinking, Modern Life, Tests

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Millions of Christians can and do go through life attending church, listening to sermons, reciting the creeds and never confront the seeming contradictions, redaction and myths passed off as verifiable history.

A. N. Wilson

Christian, Listening, Church

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One symptom of his (Hitler) being strangely at variance with reality, or the nature of things,was his gift for wearing inappropriate of ludicrous clothing...When he was supposed to be starting a militaristic revolution he was wearing evening dress and an ill-fitting black tailcoat...and his army medals.

A. N. Wilson

Army, Reality, Black

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Brain power improves by brain use, just as our bodily strength grows with exercise. And there is no doubt that a large proportion of the female population, from school days to late middle age, now have very complicated lives indeed.

A. N. Wilson

Birthday, School, Exercise

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The latest research has revealed that women have a higher IQ than men.

A. N. Wilson

Men, Research, Higher

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It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics.

A. N. Wilson

Children, Remarkable, Dictatorship

"Once upon a life" by A. N. Wilson, www.theguardian.com. June 4, 2011.

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In universities and intellectual circles, academics can guarantee themselves popularity - or, which is just as satisfying, unpopularity - by being opinionated rather than by being learned.

A. N. Wilson

Education, Circles, Intellectual

The Guardian, September 30, 1989.

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In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people - the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same.

A. N. Wilson

Class, People, Water

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The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.

A. N. Wilson

Family, Queens, House

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This book has been a catalogue of mistakes by politicians, moral and practical disasters which led to wars, enslavement and wretchedness on a scale which no previous age could have dreaded or dreamed of.

A. N. Wilson

War, Mistake, Book

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It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim.

A. N. Wilson

Thinking, Opposites, History

A. N. Wilson (2015). “After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World”, p.194, Macmillan

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We cannot hope for a society in which formal organized religion dies out. But we can stop behaving as if it was worthy of our collective respect.

A. N. Wilson

Formal, Worthy, Organized

A. N. Wilson (1991). “Against religion”, Vintage

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I am shy to admit that I have followed the advice given all those years ago by a wise archbishop to a bewildered young man: that moments of unbelief 'don't matter,' that if you return to a practice of the faith, faith will return.

A. N. Wilson

Wise, Men, Years

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Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.

A. N. Wilson

Dragons, Monsters, Giants

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I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.

A. N. Wilson

Believe, House, Church

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On the rare occasions when I spend a night in Oxford, the keeping of the hours by the clock towers in New College, and Merton, and the great booming of Tom tolling 101 times at 9 pm at Christ Church are inextricably interwoven with memories and regrets and lost joys. The sound almost sends me mad, so intense are the feelings it evokes.

A. N. Wilson

Memories, Regret, Night

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If you imagine writing 1,000 words a day, which most journalists do, that would be a very long book a year.

A. N. Wilson

Book, Writing, Years

"AN Wilson: 'Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow'". Interview with William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. April 21, 2012.

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History does not eliminate grievances. It lays them down like landmines.

A. N. Wilson

History, Doe, Grievance

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I think that if you can't be loyal to the Church, it's best to get out.

A. N. Wilson

Thinking, Church, Loyal

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If you read about Mussolini or Stalin or some of these other great monsters of history, they were at it all the time, that they were getting up in the morning very early. They were physically very active. They didn't eat lunch.

A. N. Wilson

Morning, Lunch, Monsters

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Truth comes to us mediated by human love.

A. N. Wilson

Humans, Human Love

"Tennyson's In Memoriam: a farewell to religious certainty" by AN Wilson, www.theguardian.com. January 4, 2011.

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Born: October 27, 1950
Occupation: Writer
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