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Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes

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Famous Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes

“It seems to me quite disastrous that the idea should have got about that Christianity is an other-worldly, unreal, idealistic kind of religion that suggests that if we are good we shall be happy. On the contrary, it is fiercely and even harshly realistic, insisting that there are certain eternal achievements that make even happiness look like trash.”

IfsShouldLooksKindIdeasSeemsCertainChristianityAchievementEternalShould HaveContraryRealisticWorldlyTrashUnrealInsistingIdealistic
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“Birth is beastly - and death - and digestion, if it comes to that. Sometimes when I think of what's happening inside me to a beautiful suprème de sole, with the caviare in boats, and the croûtons and the jolly little twists of potato and all the gadgets - I could cry. But there it is, don't you know.”

IfsThinkingKnowsLittlesSometimesBeautifulCryBirthEatingHappeningsBoatSoleTwistsPotatoesGadgetsDigestionJollyBeastly
Book:The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
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“If we did not know all His retorts by heart, if we had not taken the sting out of them by incessant repetition in the accents of the pulpit, and if we had not somehow got it into our heads that brains were rather reprehnsible, we should reckon Him among the greatest wits of all time. Nobody else, in three brief years, has achieved such an output of epigram.”

IfsKnowsShouldYearsHeartThreeJesusChristBrainTakenJesus ChristWitAll TimeAccentsRepetitionPulpitOutputEpigramsIncessantRetorts
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“Do you solemnly swear never to conceal a vital clue from the reader? Do you promise to observe seemly moderation in the use of gangs, conspiracies, Super Criminals and Lunatics and utterly and forever to forswear Mysterious Poisons unknown to science? Will you honor the King's English? ... If you fail to keep your promise, may other writers steal your plots and your pages swarm with misprints.”

IfsMayUseNovelForeverFailingMysteryReaderKingsHonorPromisePagesCriminalsStealingMysteriousPoisonPlotConspiracySwearModerationClueGangSwarmsMystery Novels
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“you can give it a long name if you like, but I'm an old-fashioned woman and I call it mother-wit, and it's so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.”

IfsMenGivingWritingLongDoeBookMotherNamesWitOld FashionedHolmesMother Wit
Book:The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death
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“Fantasy works inwards upon its author, blurring the boundary between the visioned and the actual, and associating itself ever moreclosely with the Ego, so that the child who has fantasied himself a murderer ends by becoming a Loeb or a Leopold. The creative Imagination works outwards, steadily increasing the gap between the visioned and the actual, till this becomes the great gulf fixed between art and nature. Few writers of crime-stories become murderers--if any do, it is not the result of identifying themselves with their murderous heroes.”

IfsChildrenArtEndsStoriesImaginationResultsFantasyCreativeCrimeBecomingHeroEgoWork OutBoundariesFixedGapsMurdererIdentifyingCreative Imagination
Book:The Mind of the Maker
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“The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man-and the dogma is the drama ... The plot pivots upon a single character, and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: 'What think ye of Christ?'... He was emphatically not a dull m an in his human lifetime, and if he was God, there can be nothing dull about God either.”

IfsThinkingMenHumansWholeCharacterProblemActionChristianChristImaginationAnswersDramaExcitingLifetimeDullPlotDogmaChristian Faith
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“There is also one excellent reason why the veriest amateur may feel entitled to have an opinion about education. For if we are not all professional teachers, we have all, at some time or other, been taught. Even if we learned nothing-perhaps in particular if we learned nothing-our contribution to the discussion may have a potential value.”

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Book:The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement: On Dante and Other Writers
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“The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.”

IfsWayMadeFactsPrinciplesCrimeSeriousIntegrityScientistErrorsIntentionStatementsCommitEthicalTreasonEthical Principles
Book:Gaudy Night
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“Philip wasn't the sort of man to make a friend of a woman. He wanted devotion. I gave him that. I did, you know. But I couldn't stand being made a fool of. I couldn;t stand being put on probation, like an office-boy, to see if I was good enough to be condescended to. I quite thought he was honest when he said he didn't believe in marriage -- and then it turned out that it was a test, to see whether my devotion was abject enough. Well, it wasn't. I didn't like having matrimony offered as a bad-conduct prize.”

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Book:Strong Poison
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“It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?”

IfsShouldRealDreamWantedWishWonderEmbraceDepthSymbolsPeterGardeningPoliteDentistUnspeakableAwfulnessLord Peter Wimsey
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“I say, I don’t think the human frame is very thoughtfully constructed for this sleuthhound business. If one could go on all fours, or had eyes in ones knees, it would be a lot more practical’… ‘What luck! Here’s a deep, damp ditch on the other side, which I shall now proceed to fall into.’ A slithering crash proclaimed that he had carried out his intention.”

IfsThinkingHumansWould BeEyeFallSidesGoes OnLuckIntentionPracticalsKneesCrashDampFours
Book:Clouds of Witness
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“Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse.”

IfsKnowsShouldLittlesWholeLawEnjoyMysteryLawyerRetiringWhole TruthNothing But The TruthWorkhouses
Book:The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death
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