Evelyn Waugh: Trending quotes (page 6)

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Evelyn Waugh: 246   quotes 8   likes

“Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people as static and dynamic.”

Evelyn Waugh book Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall (1928)

People , Sex

“Your action, and your action alone, determines your worth.”

Evelyn Waugh

Johann Gottlieb Fichte in The Vocation of Man [Die Bestimmung des Menschen] (1800), p. 94 : "You are here, not for idle contemplation of yourself, not for brooding over devout sensations — no, for action you are here; action, and action alone, determines your worth." [Nicht zum müßigen Beschauen und Betrachten deiner selbst, oder zum Brüten über andächtigen Empfindungen, — nein, zum Handeln bist du da; dein Handeln und allein dein Handeln bestimmt deinen Werth.]
Misattributed

“The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere," he said. "Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.”

Evelyn Waugh book Scoop

A quote from Lord Copper.
Scoop (1938)

Home , Strong

“"We, Seth, Emperor of Azania, Chief of Chiefs of Sakuyu, Lord of Wanda and Tyrant of the Seas, Bachelor of the Arts of Oxford University, being in this the twenty-fourth year of our life, summoned by the wisdom of Almighty God and the unanimous voice of our people to the throne of our ancestors, do hereby proclaim…" Seth paused in his dictation and gazed out across the harbour where in the fresh breeze of early morning the last dhow was setting sail for the open sea. "Rats," he said; "stinking curs. They are all running away."”

Evelyn Waugh book Black Mischief

First lines
Black Mischief (1932)

Life , Wisdom , God , People

“When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning.”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

First lines of Prologue
Brideshead Revisited (1945)

“O God, if there is a God, forgive him his sins, if there is such a thing as sin.”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited (1945)

God , Forgiveness

“A typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.”

Evelyn Waugh

Source: Diary entry (March 1964), after hearing that doctors had removed a benign tumor from Randolph Churchill, quoted in The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie (1976), p. 792

Science , Parting

“How ungenerously in later life we disclaim the virtuous moods of our youth, living in retrospect long, summer days of unreflecting dissipation. There is no candour in a story of early manhood which leaves out of account the home-sickness for nursery morality, the regrets and resolutions of amendment, the black hours which, like zero on the roulette table, turn up with roughly calculable regularity.”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited (1945)

Life , Youth , Home , Mood

“My theme is memory, that winged host that soared about me one grey morning of war-time.”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited (1945)

War , Memory , Time

“I have lived carefully, sheltered myself from the cold winds, eaten moderately of what was in season, drunk fine claret, slept in my own sheets; I shall live long.”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

Part 3, chapter 5, Lord Marchmain's dying soliloquy.
Brideshead Revisited (1945)

Season

“Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.”

Evelyn Waugh

The Tablet (9 May 1951)

Parent

“Up to a point, Lord Copper.”

Evelyn Waugh book Scoop

Lord Copper, proprietor of the Daily Beast is a man to whom one never says 'No' directly. This is what one says instead.
Scoop (1938)

“So the two of them went to London by the early morning train. 'Let's surprise her,' said Nigel, but Cedric telephoned first, wryly remembering the story of the pedantic adulterer - 'My dear, it is I who am surprised; you are astounded.”

Evelyn Waugh book Put Out More Flags

Source: Put Out More Flags (1942), Ch. 3 : Spring

Training

“What is this impulse of two people to build their beastly home? It's you & me, unborn, asserting our presence. All we are is a manifestation of the impulse to family life, and if by chance we have escaped the itch ourselves, Nature forces it upon us another way.”

Evelyn Waugh book Decline and Fall

Part One, Chapter XII
Decline and Fall (1928)

Life , People , Family , Way

“I don't believe that people would ever fall in love or want to be married if they hadn't been told about it. It's like abroad: no one would want to go there if they hadn't been told it existed.”

Evelyn Waugh book Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall (1928)

Love , People

“We, Seth, Emperor of Azania, Chief of Chiefs of Sakuyu, Lord of Wanda and Tyrant of the Seas, Bachelor of the Arts of Oxford University, being in this the twenty-fourth year of our life, summoned by the wisdom of Almighty God and the unanimous voice of our people to the throne of our ancestors, do hereby proclaim...”

Evelyn Waugh book Black Mischief

Seth paused in his dictation and gazed out across the harbour where in the fresh breeze of early morning the last dhow was setting sail for the open sea. "Rats," he said; "stinking curs. They are all running away."
First lines
Black Mischief (1932)

God , People , Art , Universe

“I have become very old in the last two years. Not diseased but enfeebled. There is nowhere I want to go and nothing I want to do and I am conscious of being an utter bore. The Vatican Council has knocked the guts out of me.”

Evelyn Waugh

Letter to Lady Mosley (9 March 1966), quoted in The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Mark Amory (1980), p. 638

Disease

“I find the new liturgy a temptation against Faith, Hope and Charity but I shall never, pray God, apostatise.”

Evelyn Waugh

Letter to Monsignor McReavy (15 April 1965), quoted in The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Mark Amory (1980), p. 631

God , Faith , Hope