Best 29 quotes of Penelope Fitzgerald on MyQuotes

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

An unjust punishment is never forgotten.

A word of advice. If, as a young man, student, you are tormented by a desire for women, it is best to get out into the fresh air as much as possible.

Behind their dark glass, the mad own nothing.

Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure short of total abstention.

I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better if they're about people the writer doesn't like very much.

If they don't depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.

I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy—for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?

It is interesting to note that everyone has a different take on the world, a different opinion, and given the same inputs have completely different outputs.

It's very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren't by any means always welcome, but at least one can't be mistaken as to who or what they are.

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

More than that, I believe that the grass is green because green is restful to the human eye, that the sky is blue to give us an idea of the infinite. And that blood is red so that murder will be more easily detected and criminals will be brought to justice. Yes, and I believe that I shall live forever, but I shall live without reason.

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

Surely you have to succeed, if you give everything you have.' 'I don't see why. Everyone has to give everything they have eventually. They have to die. Dying can't be called a success.

But time given to wishing for what can't be is not only spent, but wasted, and for all that we waste we shall be accountable.

- Dicen por ahí que está usted a punto de abrir una librería. Eso significa que no le importa enfrentarse a cosas inverosímiles. (…) - ¿Por qué cree que abrir una librería es inverosímil? -le gritó al viento-. ¿La gente de Hardoborough no quiere comprar libros? - Han perdido el deseo por las cosas raras -dijo Raven mientras seguía limando-. Se venden más arenques ahumados, por ejemplo que truchas están medio ahumadas y tienen un sabor más delicado. Y no me diga usted que los libros no constituyen una rareza en si mismos.

En ese momento se dio la vuelta, como movida por una ráfaga de viento.

Gentleness is not kindness. His fluid personality tested and stole into the weak places of others until it found it could settle down to its own advantage.

Hannah wanted to put the next day's work on the blackboard. This would mean that she needn't turn her back on the class first thing, which is as unwise in junior teaching as in lion-taming.

Hojear libros es parte de la tradición de una librería —le dijo Florence—. Debes dejar que se queden y toquen los libros.

. . . in every created thing, whether it is alive or whether is what we usually call inanimate, there is an attempt to communicate, even among the totally silent. There is a question being asked, a different question for every entity, which for the most part will never be put into words, even by those who can speak.

I would bear it for her if I could. People say that and hardly mean it. I, however, do mean it. But time given to wishing for what can't be is not only spent, but wasted, and for all that we waste we shall be accountable.

Llevar una oficina no es tan difícil, le dijo Just. Básicamente consiste en saber, en primer lugar, que entra; en segundo lugar, qué queda pendiente; en tercer lugar, qué asuntos han sido gestionados y están listos para salir; y en cuarto lugar, qué es lo que ya ha salido. Todos los asuntos deben encontrarse en una de estas cuatro etapas, y de este modo no se puede poner la excusa de que se ha traspapelado algún documento. Para cada transacción debe haber un registro, y de ese registro tienes que poder obtener inmediatamente una copia escrita. El mundo civilizado no podria existir sin su cohorte de escribientes, y estos a su vez no podrían existir si la civilización no requiriese tanto papeleo. - Yo no resistiria la vida si tuviera que que trabajar de escribiente, le dijo Fritz. - No debería existir ese tipo de trabajo. - Ni una revolución acabaría con él, le dijo Coelestin Just. - Habría escribientes al pie de la guillotina.

Opportunity, after all, is only another word for temptation.

-¿Por qué cree que abrir una librería es inverosímil?-. ¿La gente de Hardborough no quiere comprar libros? -Han perdido el deseo por las cosas raras-dijo (...). (...) Y no me diga usted que los libros no constituyen una rareza en sí mismos.

She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel which it had caught. The eel, in turn, was struggling to escape from the gullet of the heron and appeared a quarter, a half, or occasionally three-quarters of the way out. The indecision expressed by both creatures was pitiable. They had taken on too much.

She ought to go down to the beach. It was Thursday, early closing, and it seemed ungrateful to live so close to the sea and never look at it for weeks on end.

Surely if one doesn’t find sex tiresome in life, it won’t be tiresome in fiction,’ said the Junior Dean. ‘I do find it tiresome in life,’ Dr Matthews replied. ‘Or rather, I find other people’s concern with it tiresome. One is told about it and told and told!

What’s to become of us? We can’t go on like this.” “Yes, we can go on like this,” said Cesare. “We can go on exactly like this for the rest of our lives.