Christopher Morley Quotes

....That's the kind of thing, if you get to thinking about, that could wake you in the middle of night. I didn't want my nights to have any middles.

"Are you signalling any one?" he asked. "No one in particular. I thought it looked better to have a few flags about." "I daresay you're right. But better take them down if you speak a ship. They're rather confusing." "Confusing? I thought they were just to brighten things up." "You have two different signals up. They read, Bubonic plague, give me a wide berth. Am coming to your assistance."

"I have heard laughter, and I think it is the laughter of God." The congregation stirred a little, with polite uneasiness. This was not quite the sort of thing to which they were accustomed. "Why should God laugh? I think it is because He sees that very often, when we pretend to be worshipping Him, we are really worshipping and gratifying ourselves."

nessuno come un cane sa apprezzare la straordinarietà della tua conversazione.

Even the most innocent of men's affairs seem doomed to cause suffering. Pushing the lawnmower through tall wet grass, and enjoying the strong aroma of the morning, I found that the blades had cut a frog in half. I have not forgotten his eyes.

There are fashions in saying things just as there are fashions in clothes. You wear what other people are wearing not so much because it's attractive but so as not to be conspicuous; so you can go on bind yourself underneath without being noticed too much.

Vivere in una libreria è come vivere in un deposito di esplosivi. Su quegli scaffali sono allineati i più tremendi combustibili del mondo: i cervelli degli uomini.

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.

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!

Suppose someone tried to write your biography. What nonsense! How much would he know? Would he know what you thought when you looked in the subway slot-machine? How brutally you spoke when you were angry? How Nature rode you with a busy spur? How you fell on your knees late at night?

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve
that answers to the vibrations of beauty.

"He pushed through the bushes. In a little hollow were three small puppies, whining faintly. They were cold and draggled with mud. Someone had left them there, evidently, to perish. They were huddled close together; their eyes, a cloudy unspeculative blue, were only just opened. "This is gruesome," said Gissing, pretending to be shocked."

Giorno per giorno vedo la gente affollarsi nei teatri e nei cinematografi, e so che per la metà delle volte, e anche più, vanno a una ricerca cieca, e credono di essere soddisfatti mentre in realtà vengono pasciuti di miseri gusci vuoti. E la parte più triste di tutto questo è che se ci si immagina di essere soddisfatti dei gusci, non rimarrà più appetito per il buon grano.

"The freedom of the city"a phrase he had somewhere heardechoed in his mind. The freedom of the city! A magnificent saying, Electric signs, first burning wanly in the pink air, then brightened and grew strong. "Not light, but rather darkness visible," in that magic hour that just holds the balance between paling day and the spendthrift jewellery of evening.

He had no responsibilities, not even a motor car, for his tastes were surprisingly simple. If he happened to be spending an evening at the country club, and a rainstorm came down, he did not worry about getting home. He would sit by the fire and chuckle to see the married members creep away one by one. He would get out his pipe and sleep that night at the club, after telephoning Fuji not to sit up for him.