Quotessence
Home / Books / The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

Book by Dorothy L. Sayers · 6 quotes · Honesty, Integrity, Values

Filter quotes by topic

AllHonestyIntegrityValuesAcademiaFalsificationLiesOxfordScholarsScienceSelling OutTreasonTruthVeracityWritingAppearanceArtistsAttachmentCharactersChristianityCleverness

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist Quotes

“Well, well -- the prizes all go to the women who 'play their cards well' -- but if they can only be won in that way, I would rather lose the game ... [C]lever [women] bide their time -- make themselves indispensable first, and then se font prier [=play hard to get]. Clever -- but I can't do it.”

MenWomenMarriageHonestyTricksDeceptionAttachmentClevernessPermanency
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image

“To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life. (Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)”

WritingTruthScienceValuesMoneyHonestyMoralityIntegrityLiesGreedHonourArtistsTreasonAcademiaGainSelling OutVeracityFalsificationScholars
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image

“[I]t's difficult to make people see that what you have been taught counts for nothing, and that the only things worth having are the things you find out for yourself. Also, that when so many brands of what Chesterton calls 'fancy souls' and theories of life are offered you, there is no sense in not looking pretty carefully to see what you are going in for. [...] It isn't a case of 'Here is the Christian religion, the one authoritative and respectable rule of life. Take it or leave it'. It's 'Here's a muddling kind of affair called Life, and here are nineteen or twenty different explanations of it, all supported by people whose opinions are not to be sneezed at. Among them is the Christian religion in which you happpen to have been brought up. Your friend so-and-so has been brought up in quite a different way of thinking; is a perfectly splendid person and thoroughly happy. What are you going to do about it?' -- I'm worrying it out quietly, and whatever I get hold of will be valuable, because I've got it for myself; but really, you know, the whole question is not as simple as it looks.”

LifeValuesSpiritualityChristianityDiversityGuidanceMeaning Of LifeSelf Determination
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image

“But -- my dear, my heart is BROKEN! I have seen the perfect Peter Wimsey. Height, voice, charm, smile, manner, outline of features, everything -- and he is -- THE CHAPLAIN OF BALLIOL!! What is the use of anything? ... I am absolutely shattered by this Balliol business. Such waste -- why couldn't he have been an actor?”

IdentityAppearanceCharactersOxfordModelLord Peter WimseyWimsey
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image

“The one thing which seems to me quite impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written. (Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)”

WritingHonestyIntegrityExpectationsCreative ProcessSelf ExpressionOn WritingSelling OutPandering
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image

“See that the mind is honest, first; the rest may follow or not as God wills. [That] the fundamental treason to the mind ... is the one fundamental treason which the scholar's mind must not allow is the bond uniting all the Oxford people in the last resort.”

TruthScienceValuesHonestyIntegrityLiesTreasonAcademiaOxfordVeracityFalsificationScholars
Book:The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Create image