Quotes By Author: Evelyn Waugh

“A little murmur of admiration greeted this neat reply and on the crest of it the hostess rose to dismiss the meeting. The ladies rustled forward towards the lecturer but he, deprecating their flattery, came to greet Helena. “I was told your Majesty might do me the honor of coming.””I scarcely hoped you had recognized me. I am afraid the lecture was far above my head. But I am delighted to see you have prospered. Are you . . . are you able to travel as you wish?””Yes, I was given my freedom many years ago by a kind, foolish old woman who took a fancy for my verses.””Did you get to Alexandria?””Not yet, but I found what I wanted. Did you reach Troy, Highness?””No, oh no.” “Or Rome?””Not even there.””But you found what you wanted?””I have accepted what I found. Is that the same?””For most people. I think you wanted more.””Once. Now I am past my youth.””But your question just now. ‘When? Where? How do you know?’–was a child’s question.””That is why your religion would never do for me, Marcias. If I ever found a teacher it would have to be one who called little children to him.””That, alas, is not the spirit of the time. We live in a very old world today. We know too much. We should have to forget everything and be born again to answer your question.”

“Then I knew that the sign I had asked for was not a little thing, not a passing nod of recognition, and a phrase came back to me from my childhood of the veil of the temple being rent from top to bottom.”

“Success in this world depends on knowing exactly how little effort each job is worth…distribution of energy…”

“No one could really hate a saint, could they? They can’t really hate God either. When they want to Hate Him and His saints they have to find something like themselves and pretends it’s God and hate that.”

“I’ve always been bad. Probably I shall be bad again, punished again. But the worse I am, the more I need God. I can’t shut myself out from His mercy. … Or it may be a private bargain between me and God, that if I give up this one thing I want so much, however bad I am, He won’t quite despair of me in the end.”

“The worse I am, the more I need God. I can’t shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him.”

“After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can’t trust a person.”