Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connollywas a literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizonand wrote Enemies of Promise, which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of fiction that he had aspired to be in his youth...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth10 September 1903
mistake reality interesting
A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. It is not interesting to be always unhappy, engrossed with oneself, malignant and ungrateful, and never quite in touch with reality.
art reality past
Imagination is nostalgia for the past, the absent it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality.
sadness reality wind
Melancholy and remorse forms the deep leaden keel which enables us to sail into the wind of reality.
running reality wind
Melancholy and remorse form the deep leaden keel which enables us to sail into the wind of reality; we run aground sooner than the flat-bottomed pleasure-lovers but we venture out in weather that would sink them and we choose our direction.
reality history drug
Everything is a dangerous drug except reality which is unendurable.
art develops equals imagination liquid nostalgia reality snapshot solution
Imagination equals nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality
artist closing gardens judged quality resonance solitude time west
It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.
enjoy public virtues
The ape-like virtues without which no one can enjoy a public school.
master passions
The person who is master of their passions is reason's slave.
argue arms lifetime main river splitting truth
Truth is a river that is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between the arms the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the main river.
pain bad-relationship two
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another.
two people mind
Two weeks before his death, a friend asked him half jokingly if he had discovered any meaning in life. "Yes," he replied, "there is a meaning; at least, for me, there is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people."
god pessimistic disappointing
There cannot be a personal God without a pessimistic religion. As soon as there is a personal God he is a disappointing God.
love greed comfort
Greed, like the love of comfort, is a kind of fear.