Ivy Compton-Burnett Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• People's weaker side is not necessarily their truer self.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Self, People, Weakness

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Family and a Fortune”, p.147, A&C Black

  5 Copy quote

• Pushing forty? She's hanging on for dear life.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Sarcastic, Memorable, Hanging On

  10 Copy quote

• It is no good to think that other people are out to serve our interests.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Thinking, People, Interest

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “Elders and Betters”, p.4, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Our desires have a way of getting bigger with our incomes.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Desire, Income, Way

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Family and a Fortune”, p.97, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• Civilized life exacts its toll.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Tolls, Civilized

  4 Copy quote

• Ah, we have to be generous to be grateful ... One has oneself to be a giver.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Gratitude, Grateful, Giver

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Heritage and its History”, p.66, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• Dear, dear, the miniature world of the family! All the emotions of mankind seem to find a place in it.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Family, World, Emotion

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (1972). “Parents and children”

  6 Copy quote

• charm should be on the surface. It has no hidden use.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Use, Charm, Should

  4 Copy quote

• We are always children to our mothers.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Mother, Children

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Heritage and its History”, p.63, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Compton, Picks, Hard

  "The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett". Book by Elizabeth Sprigge, 1973.

  53 Copy quote

• What concerns anyone so much as the time he has to live?

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Concern, Self-importance

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Heritage and its History”, p.67, A&C Black

  5 Copy quote

• The plot is not very important to me, though a novel must have one, of course. It's just a line to hang the washing on.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Important, Plot, Lines

  4 Copy quote

• [On writing:] What a difficult kind of work to choose! But of course one did not choose it. There was no choice.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Writing, Choices, Kind

  4 Copy quote

• We must use words as they are used, or stand aside from life.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Use, Used

  'Mother and Son' (1955) ch. 9

  5 Copy quote

• It will be a beautiful family talk, mean and worried and full of sorrow and spite and excitement.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Family, Beautiful, Mean

  1939 A Family and a Fortune, ch.10.

  4 Copy quote

• Well, of course, people are only human... But it really does not seem much for them to be.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  People, Doe, Wells

  'A Family and a Fortune' (1939) ch. 2

  4 Copy quote

• To young people the future is still long.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Long, People, Youth

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Heritage and its History”, p.68, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• It is better to be drunk with loss and to beat the ground, than to let the deeper things gradually escape.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Loss, Drunk, Beats

  4 Copy quote

• There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Havens

  5 Copy quote

• Most of the pleasure of making a book would go if it held nothing to be shared by other people. I would write for a few dozen people, and sometimes it seems that I do so, but I would not write for no-one.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Book, Writing, People

  4 Copy quote

• It is not for us to hold ourselves above the position of grateful people. We have to be able to accept. Anything else shows an unwillingness to grant someone else the superior place.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Grateful, People, Able

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (2011). “A Family and a Fortune”, p.104, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• There is danger in courage. Cowardice is a power for good. We hardly know what it prevents.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Cowardice, Danger, Knows

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (1972). “The last and the first”

  7 Copy quote

• The most original novelist now writing in English.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Writing, Novelists, Originals

  7 Copy quote

• Real charity and real ability never to condemn-the one real virtue-is so often the result of a waking experience that gives a glimpse of what lies beneath things.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Real, Lying, Giving

  4 Copy quote

• Truth is so impossible. Something has to be done for it.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Truth, Done, Impossible

  Ivy Compton-Burnett (1972). “Darkness and day”

  4 Copy quote

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