“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
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Famous Cyril Connolly Quotes
“The worst vice of the solitary is the worship of his food.”
Source: Cyril Connolly: journal and memoir
“The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life.”
“The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication.”
“Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.”
“No taste is so acquired as that for someone else's quality of mind.”
Source: Cyril Connolly: journal and memoir
“Longevity is the revenge of talent upon genius.”
Source: The evening colonnade
“Everything is a dangerous drug except reality which is unendurable.”
“Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.”
“No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.”
“Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learned to walk.”
“We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.”
“Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signalling to be let out.”
Source: Cyril Connolly: journal and memoir
Source: Enemies of Promise
“We love but once, for once only are we perfectly equipped for loving.”
“Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.”
Source: Cyril Connolly: journal and memoir
“When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.”
“The true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and no other task is of any consequence.”
Source: The selected essays of Cyril Connolly
“For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?”