Christopher Morley Quotes

It always seemed to me that [Henry James] had a kind of rush of words to the head and never stopped to sort them out properly.

Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.

Night, I have discovered, has a faintly bitter taste, caused by its large ingredient of Un-attained Possibility.

Sa lei perché la gente ora legge più libri di quanto non abbia mai fatto prima? Perché la terrificante catastrofe della guerra le ha fatto comprendere di aver la mente ammalata. Il mondo soffriva di ogni sorta di febbri celebrali, e dolori, e disordini, e non lo sapeva. Ora le nostre angosce mentali sono anche troppo manifeste. Leggiamo tutti avidamente, in fretta, cercando di scoprire, passato il disturbo, che cosa c'era che non andava nella nostra mente.

I went to the theatre with the author of a successful play. He insisted on explaining everything. He told me what to watch, the details of the direction, the errors of the property man, the foibles of the star. He anticipated all of my surprises and ruined the evening. Never again! And mark you, the greatest author of all made no such mistake.

When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night — there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.

Malnutrition of the reading faculty is a serious thing. Let us prescribe for you.

You know, a woman only falls in love once in her life, and if it waits until she's darn near forty — well, it takes!

Do you know why people are reading more books now than ever before? Because the terrific catastrophe of the war has made them realize that their minds are ill. The world was suffering from all sorts of mental fevers and aches and disorders, and never knew it. Now our mental pangs are only too manifest. We are all reading, hungrily, hastily, trying to find out — after the trouble is over — what was the matter with our minds.

There is only one success-to be able to spend life in your own way.

We’ve had bad luck with our kids – they’ve all grown up.

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.