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Osbert Sitwell Quotes

Writer

Osbert Sitwell was a British writer born on December 6, 1892, and died on May 4, 1969. He was a member of the Sitwell family, known for his unique literary style and critical works.

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All Men Artist Blood Flower Idiot Ifs Poetry Is Rich Rich Man Scarlet

Famous Osbert Sitwell Quotes

“Heroic figures are now obsolete,So Demigod and Devil find retreatIn minds of children - as rare beasts and men,Elsewhere extinct, persist in hill or fenFrom man protected - where each form assumesGigantic stature and intention, loomsFrom wind-moved, twilight-woven histories:For them each flower teems with mysteries.”

Source: The collected satires and poems of Osbert Sitwell

“For Poetry is the wisdom of the blood,That scarlet tree within, which has the powerTo make dull words bud forth and burst in flower.”

Tree Blood Flower Dull Poetry Is Bud Scarlet

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“The terrible newly imported American doctrine that everyone ought to do something.”

Work Ought Terrible Doctrine

Book:Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

Source: Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

“My education [takes place] during the holidays from Eton.”

Holiday Eton

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“It is fatal to be appreciated in one's own time.”

Appreciated

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.”

Ifs Writing Trying Poetry Certain Cat Fishes Poetry Is Stale

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“A golf course outside a big town serves an excellent purpose in that it segregates, as though a concentration camp, all the idle and idiot well-to-do.”

Wells Bigs Purpose Courses Towns Golf Idiot Excellent Concentration Camps Idle Golf Course Concentration Camp

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.”

Life Inspirational Beautiful Artist Differences Madness Obsession Intensity Restraint Courtesy Lunatic

Book:Noble essences: a book of characters

Source: Noble essences: a book of characters

“In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us.”

Way Reality Time Names Killing Time To Kill Time Clock

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“I have always said that if I were a rich man, I would employ a professional praiser.”

Ifs Men Said Funny Money Rich Classroom Rich Man

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“How simple-minded of the Germans to imagine that we British could be cowed by the destruction of our ancient monuments! As though any havoc of the German bombs could possibly equal the things we have done ourselves!”

Done Simple Imagine Equal Destruction Ancient British Bombs Imagine That Monument Havoc

Author:Osbert Sitwell

“Everywhere men have unlocked the prisoners within, and from under the disguising skins the apes have leapt joyfully out.”

Men Skins Prisoner Apes

Book:The Cruel Month

Source: The Cruel Month

“The Rich Man's Banquet, which was to last for a decade, had now begun: the feast, it was recognised, went to the greediest.”

Men Lasts Rich Decades Rich Man Banquets

Book:Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

Source: Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

“The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it.”

World May Artist Edges Idiot Over It Clown Edge Of The World

Book:Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

Source: Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

“Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space.”

Spirit Lying Space Situation Hell Climate

Book:The scarlet tree: being the second volume of Left hand, right hand! An autobiography

Source: The scarlet tree: being the second volume of Left hand, right hand! An autobiography

“Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us.”

Tree Blood Health Fragile Donation Scarlet Donors Organ Donation Organ Donor

Book:The Cruel Month

Source: The Cruel Month

“We attended stables, as we attended church, in our best clothes, thereby no doubt showing the degree of respect due to horses.”

Church Doubt Degrees Clothes Horse Dues No Doubt

Book:Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

Source: Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography

“For forty days he went out into the desert - and never shot anything [on Jesus]”

Jesus Shots Desert Forty

Author:Osbert Sitwell

About the Author

Born: December 6, 1892
Died: May 4, 1969
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 18

Books & Sources

Left Hand, Right Hand!: An AutobiographyRelated source material

The Cruel MonthRelated source material

Noble essences: a book of charactersRelated source material

The collected satires and poems of Osbert SitwellRelated source material

The scarlet tree: being the second volume of Left hand, right hand! An autobiographyRelated source material

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