Evelyn Waugh Quotes

Powerful Evelyn Waugh for Daily Growth

He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.

- Evelyn Waugh

Instinct, Gifted, Passes, Sly

The truth is that Oxford is simply a very beautiful city in which it is convenient to segregate a certain number of the young of the nation while they are growing up.

- Evelyn Waugh

City, Very, Which, Convenient

We class schools into four grades: leading school, first-rate school, good school and school.

- Evelyn Waugh

School, Four, Schools, First-Rate

We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them.

- Evelyn Waugh

Cherish, Them, Ours, Amuse

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

- Evelyn Waugh

Art, Efforts, Symbol, Refrain

My unhealthy affection for my second daughter has waned. Now I despise all my seven children equally.

- Evelyn Waugh

Seven, Equally, Despise, Unhealthy

Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.

- Evelyn Waugh

Desire, Aesthetic, Repressed

Other nations use 'force'; we Britons alone use 'Might'.

- Evelyn Waugh

Alone, Other, Use, Britons

It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.

- Evelyn Waugh

Curious, Which, Civilized, Promises

I think to be oversensitive about cliches is like being oversensitive about table manners.

- Evelyn Waugh

Think, Like, I Think, Cliches

Money is only useful when you get rid of it. It is like the odd card in 'Old Maid'; the player who is finally left with it has lost.

- Evelyn Waugh

Old, Like, Finally, Old Maid

News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead.

- Evelyn Waugh

News, About, Read, Chap

We schoolmasters must temper discretion with deceit.

- Evelyn Waugh

Temper, Discretion, Must, Deceit

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.

- Evelyn Waugh

Time, Virtue, Punctuality, Bored

Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people as static and dynamic.

- Evelyn Waugh

Division, Static, Sexes, Ought

There is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.

- Evelyn Waugh

Need, Religious, Clergyman, Draws

One forgets words as one forgets names. One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.

- Evelyn Waugh

Die, Names, Needs, Forgets

The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.

- Evelyn Waugh

Mind, Horrors, Tries, Human Mind

Perhaps host and guest is really the happiest relation for father and son.

- Evelyn Waugh

Son, Happiest, Perhaps, Father And Son

I put the words down and push them a bit.

- Evelyn Waugh

Words, Them, Bit, Push

All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I'd sooner go to my dentist any day.

- Evelyn Waugh

Pleasure, Sooner, About, Dentist

Professional reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases.

- Evelyn Waugh

Craving, Read, Arresting, Unhealthy

Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.

- Evelyn Waugh

Need, Pretty, Away, Manners

When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.

- Evelyn Waugh

Get, Keep, Argue, Limitations

You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs except in England, of course.

- Evelyn Waugh

Never, England, Find, Englishman

Pray always for all the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.

- Evelyn Waugh

Always, Delicate, Learned, Oblique

Your actions, and your action alone, determines your worth.

- Evelyn Waugh

Alone, Action, Your, Determines

There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.

- Evelyn Waugh

Ideas, Only, Poetic

In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice.

- Evelyn Waugh

World, Dying, National, Vice

Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.

- Evelyn Waugh

May, Them, Your, Contempt

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