His courtesy was somewhat extravagant. He would write and thank people who wrote to thank him for wedding presents and when he encountered anyone as punctilious as himself the correspondence ended only with death.
Evelyn WaughDon'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 WaughOf children as of procreation— the pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, the expense damnable.
Evelyn WaughI put the words down and push them a bit.
Evelyn WaughAesthetic value is often the by-product of the artist striving to do something else.
Evelyn WaughWe cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them -- a diminishing number in my case.
Evelyn WaughPlease bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY.
Evelyn WaughCreative Endeavour lost her wings, Mrs. Ape.
Evelyn WaughFeather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole.
Evelyn Waugh"Up to a point, Lord Copper."
Evelyn Waugh"I have been here before," I said; I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer; it was a day of peculiar splendour, and though I had been there so often, in so many moods, it was to that first visit that my heart returned on this, my latest.
Evelyn WaughTo know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom.
Evelyn WaughMy theme is memory, that winged host that soared about me one grey morning of war-time. We possess nothing certainly except the past.
Evelyn WaughI have lived carefully, sheltered myself from the cold winds, eaten moderately of what was in season, drunk fine claret, slept in my own sheets; I shall live long.
Evelyn WaughO God, if there is a God, forgive him his sins, if there is such a thing as sin. '...But I saw today there was one thing unforgivable - like things in the school-room, so bad they were unpunishable, that only mummy could deal with - the bad thing I was on the point of doing, that I'm not quite bad enough to do; to set up a rival good to God's.'
Evelyn WaughQuomondo sedet sola civitas. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Evelyn WaughIt may happen in the next hundred years that the English novelists of the present day will come to be valued as we now value the artists and craftsmen of the late eighteenth century.
Evelyn WaughOnly when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography.
Evelyn WaughYour action, and your action alone, determines your worth.
Evelyn WaughArt is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
Evelyn WaughOnly when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography.
Evelyn WaughAll this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I'd sooner go to my dentist any day.
Evelyn Waugh