John Fowles Quotes

Quotes about:

• The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.

  John Fowles

  Life, Philosophy, Important

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

  53 Copy quote

• The profoundest distances are never geographical.

  John Fowles

  Distance

  John Fowles (1965). “The Magus”

  34 Copy quote

• There are only two races on this planet - the intelligent and the stupid.

  John Fowles

  Stupid, Silly, Intelligent

  "Daily Telegraph", August 15, 1991.

  29 Copy quote

• That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.

  John Fowles

  Men, Evil, Tragedy

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

  4 Copy quote

• One of the great fallacies of our time is that the Nazis rose to power because they imposed order on chaos. Precisely the opposite is true - they were successful because they imposed chaos on order. They tore up the commandments, they denied the super-ego, what you will. They said, "You may persecute the minority, you may kill, you may torture, you may couple and breed without love." They offered humanity all its great temptations. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

  John Fowles

  Love, Time, Couple

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

  31 Copy quote

• There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not any more what you will become. It is what you are and always will be.

  John Fowles

  Life, Philosophy, Acceptance

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

  22 Copy quote

• Men love war because it allows them to look serious. Because it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them.

  John Fowles

  Love, War, Men

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

  16 Copy quote

• Time is not a road - it is a room.

  John Fowles

  Time, Rooms

  21 Copy quote

• We all want things we can't have. Being a decent human being is accepting that.

  John Fowles

  Want, Accepting, Decent

  John Fowles (1980). “The collector”, Dell Pub Co

  8 Copy quote

• There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

  John Fowles

  Writing, Novelists, Needs

  19 Copy quote

• I am infinitely strange to myself.

  John Fowles

  Strange

  JOHN FOWLES (1969). “THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN”

  13 Copy quote

• Another reason I think the novel will survive is that the reader has to work in a novel. In a film, you are presented with someone else's imagination exactly bodied out. The marvelous thing about a novel is that every reader will imagine even the very simplest sentence slightly differently.

  John Fowles

  Thinking, Imagination, Empathy

  19 Copy quote

• Always we try to put the wild in a cage.

  John Fowles

  Trying, Cages, Environment

  John Fowles (2010). “Wormholes”, p.316, Random House

  12 Copy quote

• The price of tapping water into every house is that no one values water any more.

  John Fowles

  Water, House, Tapping

  John Fowles (1970). “The Aristos”, Signet Book

  3 Copy quote

• Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?

  John Fowles

  Beautiful, Art, Passion

  John Fowles (1980). “The collector”, Dell Pub Co

  5 Copy quote

• Alive. Alive in the way that death is alive.

  John Fowles

  Alive, Way

  John Fowles (2010). “The Collector”, p.118, Random House

  18 Copy quote

• There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist.

  John Fowles

  God, Definitions

  JOHN FOWLES (1969). “THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN”

  4 Copy quote

• The noblest relationship is marriage, that is, love. Its nobility resides in its altruism, the desire to serve another beyond all the pleasures of the relationship; and in its refusal ever to regard the other as a thing, an object, a utilizability. Sex is an exchange of pleasures, of needs; love is a giving without return. It is this giving without return, this helping without reward, this surplus of pure good, that identifies the uniqueness of man as well as the true nature of the true marriage. This is the quintessence the great alchemy of sex is for.

  John Fowles

  Love, Sex, Men

  15 Copy quote

• Art is a statement of one in the face of all; not a statement by one for the use of all.

  John Fowles

  Art, Use, Faces

  John Fowles (1970). “The Aristos”, Signet Book

  3 Copy quote

• And I just can't live in this present. I would go mad if I did.

  John Fowles

  Depression, Mad, Mental Illness

  John Fowles (1963). “The collector”

  3 Copy quote

• But I think the most harmful change brought about by Victorian science in our attitude to nature lies in the demand that our relation with it must be purposive, industrious, always seeking greater knowledge.

  John Fowles

  Nature, Attitude, Lying

  18 Copy quote

• You come to the United States not knowing what to expect. Then all your worst prejudices are confirmed.

  John Fowles

  Knowing, United States, Prejudice

  John Fowles (1977). “Daniel Martin”, Jonathan Cape

  5 Copy quote

• The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.' 'I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.' He turned. 'You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy.'

  John Fowles

  Men, Race, Self

  "The Magus".

  17 Copy quote

• Follow the accident, fear the fixed plan--that is the rule.

  John Fowles

  Fixed, Plans, Accidents

  7 Copy quote

• We chase the reward, we get the reward and then we discover that the true reward is always the next reward. Buying pleasure is a false end.

  John Fowles

  Rewards, Buying, Next

  John Fowles (1970). “The Aristos”, Signet Book

  3 Copy quote

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