No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, – something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book. – Cyril Connolly
We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament, and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy. – Cyril Connolly
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives. – Cyril Connolly
The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore. – Cyril Connolly
The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above. – Cyril Connolly
When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types. – Cyril Connolly
All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others. – Cyril Connolly
As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers. – Cyril Connolly
A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out. – Cyril Connolly
Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness. – Cyril Connolly
Words today are like the shells and rope of seaweed which a child brings home glistening from the beach and which in an hour have lost their luster. – Cyril Connolly
Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action. – Cyril Connolly
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. – Cyril Connolly
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. – Cyril Connolly
Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium. – Cyril Connolly
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends. – Cyril Connolly
Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise. – Cyril Connolly