Best 28 quotes of William Bolitho on MyQuotes

Adventure is the vitaminizing element in histories both individual and social.

Adventure must start with running away from home.

An adventure differs from a mere feat in that it is tied to the externally unattainable. Only one end of the rope is in the hand, the other is not visible, and neither prayers, nor daring, nor reason can shake it free.

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living color

General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming.

It is when Pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.

Only the poet has any right to be sorry for the poor, if he has anything to spare when he has thought of the dull, commonplace rich.

The mere idea of marriage, as a strong possibility, if not always nowadays a reasonable likelihood, existing to weaken the will by distracting its straight aim in the life of practically every young girl, is the simple secret of their confessed inferiority in men's pursuits and professions to-day.

The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your successes-any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your mistakes.

The profession of magician, is one of the most perilous and arduous specializations of the imagination. On the one hand there is the hostility of God and the police to be guarded against; on the other it is as difficult as music, as deep as poetry, as ingenious as stage-craft, as nervous as the manufacture of high explosives, and as delicate as the trade in narcotics.

The shortest way out of Manchester is notoriously a bottle of Gordon's gin.

We will never have Fascism in England; no Englishman will dress up, not even for a revolution.

But the better the training, the greater and more detailed the preparation, the more men are at the mercy of the impossible.

Casanova had no ordinary shame

Gendemen, I have resolved never to make an unjust war, but to end a just one only with the utter ruin of my enemies. I will attack the first to take the field, conquer him, and then deal with the others.”- Charles XII

He had come to prospect the intentions of Charles towards the French and the Anglo-Austrian coalition, and even if Charles had thrown his jack-boot at his head, it would not have disturbed him from his mission. Marlborough was a slow negotiator. He was never in a hurry to make propositions or ask questions, preferring under cover of a banal conversation to use his extremely acute faculties of observation, and his art of unraveling other men’s motives, as it were, sideways. The ablest diplomat will never boast of understanding a man, but only his intentions.

In his stay with the cultured old epicure, Casanova had learnt two Latin saws, which were to be for the rest of his life his gospel and his policy: Fata viam inveniunt. Volentem ducit, nolentem trahit. As we may say : Fate finds the way, and Life leads its lover, betrays its rebel.

In politics, where everything romantic and sentimental is folly, the converse is usually considered true, and every brutality is thought sound sense

In short, she (Seraphina) had luck and judgment, but no morals.

Nevertheless this was the problem Casanova solved. His prime secret is in his own words. “ I have always believed that when a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope. He will upset a dynasty, provided he starts young and has the brain and perseverance necessary. For when a man has arrived at the age that Chance despises he can no longer do anything ; for without her aid there is no hope.

None can imitate life without the intermediary of art.

People who are not enjoying themselves very much always most dislike risking their lives.

Restated constructively, the end of the adventure already drags the course of the man; he (Cagliostro) is in love with satiety. But she (Seraphina) is in love with adventure. Her pitch is higher.

The adventurer, by minimum definition, is an individualist. The life of adventure is an unsocial game; therefore in direct contrast with the married, supported life which is nuclear society itself.

The historic moment is always simple and brief: it belongs to one man and one will alone, without possibility (if it be truly ripe) of any confusion of rights. The council’s surprise was their consent. They bowed themselves out of the room and also out of the story

The truth is that he (Casanova) had ceased subtly to be an adventurer to become a noisy scoundrel, or if that is too harsh, that he had no longer the irresistible charm of being the world’s best loser. He was always greedy. Now he was grasping. He was always noticeable. Now he was loud. He had become without knowing it a social man, desperately interested in the stability of his own position which he tried, without knowing how to do it, to link up with the stability of society. He had become a fortune hunter, and shrank from the quest of chance; the supernatural shine had left his eyes. Men saw in him no longer Puck, but a rival.

To every sweetheart he (Casanova) gave himself exclusively; he had so many selves.

Yet, feeling his way, starting by the passive opposition of small thefts, stealing sausage ends and crusts of bread when Signora Squeers was asleep, he (Casanova) progressed until he arrived at the thought “ that it was ridiculous to be oppressed