Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
09b8acf	For the first time, she did want more. She did not know what she wanted, knew that it was dangerous and that she should rest content with what she had, but she knew an emptiness deep inside her, which began to ache.	dreams desires contentment longing	Iain Pears
71f8972	Was not Hypatia the greatest philosopher of Alexandria, and a true martyr to the old values of learning? She was torn to pieces by a mob of incensed Christians not because she was a woman, but because her learning was so profound, her skills at dialectic so extensive that she reduced all who queried her to embarrassed silence. They could not argue with her, so they murdered her.	murder women learning education hypatia-of-alexandria philosophers dialectics skills superiority greatness suppression knowledge	Iain Pears
e0f708f	Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.	faith religion blind-faith discussion judaism doctrine disagreement shouting freedom-of-thought independent-thought jews	Iain Pears
51d872a	When all this is over, people will try to blame the Germans alone, and the Germans will try to blame the Nazis alone, and the Nazis will try to blame Hitler alone. They will make him bear the sins of the world. But it's not true. You suspected what was happening, and so did I. It was already too late over a year ago. I caused a reporter to lose his job because you told me to. He was deported. The day I did that I made my little contribution..	responsibility deportation denunciation personal-responsibility nazis genocide civilization hitler willful-ignorance cowardice knowledge guilt evil	Iain Pears
e74fbe6	She was looking for something I could never give her." Again his dark eyes bored into Julia's mind. "You have something of the same about you, young woman. Take my advice: Don't think you will find it in another person. You won't. It's not there. You must find it in yourself."	individuality self-awareness self-reliance search	Iain Pears
6c9c7f9	Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts.	mankind mind reason philosophy continuance civilization body rationality materialism	Iain Pears
3d78491	In my small way, I preserved and catalogued, and dipped into the vast ocean of learning that awaited, knowing all the time that the life of one man was insufficient for even the smallest part of the wonders that lay within. It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do so properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.	wonder learning life-lessons insufficiency knowledge	Iain Pears
f5fce47	The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind." (Marco)"	religion corruption devil	Iain Pears
c6d54e6	The evil done by men of goodwill is the worst of all ... We have done terrible things, for the best of reasons, and that makes it worse.	goodness	Iain Pears
6ef90ba	Every cataclysm is welcomed by somebody; there is always someone to rejoice at disaster and see in it the prospect of a new beginning and a better world.	life	Iain Pears
b073a38	Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless.	virtue philosophy wisdom public-service tyranny power	Iain Pears
67fe7a9	The point of civilization is to be civilized; the purpose of action is to perpetuate society, for only in society can philosophy truly take place.	black-plague clement-vi dream-of-scipio gaul iain-pears late-antiquity-rome vichy-france provence wwii christians holocaust jews	Iain Pears
6d8c5b9	Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point ... Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she..	war good denunciation ordinariness pettiness nazis wwii civilization resentment jews evil	Iain Pears
421c020	This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you." He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at th..	individuality independence paintings daughters fulfillment skills duty gift expectation perception creativity obedience	Iain Pears
2c702f6	He who profits by villainy, has perpetrated it.	villainy profit wrongdoing vice	Iain Pears
9ec9af3	Politics bores you?" Bronsen said. Julien smiled. "It does. Apologies, sir, and it is not that I haven't tried to be fascinated. But careful and meticulous research has suggested the hypothesis that all politicians are liars, fools, and tricksters, and I have as yet come across no evidence to the contrary. They can do great damage, and rarely any good. It is the job of the sensible man to try and protect civilization from their depradations..	lies politics depradation damage scholarship politicians deceit	Iain Pears
aafbed8	It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do it properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.		Iain Pears
5bcb784	Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth." "No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come to the way of leaving it." "And how do they leave? How is the ascent made? Must one learn virtue?" Here she laughs. "You have read too much, and learned too little. Virtue is a road, not a destinati..	mankind understanding virtue enlightenment fear philosophy truth soul	Iain Pears
fbf8f64	Manlius ... took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surpri..	understanding education philosophy like-mindedness crudeness plato vulgarity civilization materialism knowledge power	Iain Pears
8e07111	I have a theory that too much learning unbalances the mind.		Iain Pears
b412a98	I have brought peace to this land, and security," he began. "And what of your soul, when you use the cleverness of argument to cloak such acts? Do you think that the peace of a thousand cancels out the unjust death of one single person? It may be desirable, it may win you praise from those who have happily survived you and prospered from your deeds, but you have committed ignoble acts, and have been too proud to own them. I have waited pati..	virtue injustice killing good learning philosophy public-office doctrine prosperity peace pride vice soul values evil	Iain Pears
3fa166c	In a world of chemically induced sanity, a little lunacy confers immense advantages.		Iain Pears
8faef7b	Generally speaking, our minds impose an entirely artificial order on the world. It is the only way that such an inadequate instrument as our brain can function. It cannot deal with the complexity of reality, so simplifies everything until it can, putting events into an artificial order so they can be dealt with one at a time, rather than all at once as they should be. Such a way of interpreting existence is learnt, rather in the way that ou..		Iain Pears
f12aa7c	Philosophy cannot be extinguished, though men will try ... The spirit seeks the light, that is its nature. It wishes to return to its origin, and must forever try to reach enlightenment.	philosophy human-spirit	Iain Pears
8d2812b	And here was the moment. The end of it all, for civilization was merely another name for friendship, and friendship was coming to an end.	friendship	Iain Pears
0db80d0	A company is a moral imbecile. It has no sense of right or wrong. Any restraints have to come from the outside, from laws and customs which forbid it from doing certain things of which we disapprove. But it is a restraint that reduces profits. Which is why all companies will strain forever to break the bounds of the law, to act unfettered in their pursuit of advantage. That is the only way they can survive because the more powerful will dev..		Iain Pears
096837c	A hundred francs! Oh, dear me! It is worth millions of francs, my child. But my -- dealer -- here tells me that in fact a picture is worth only what someone will give for it. How much money do you have?" Julia took out her purse and counted. "Four francs and twenty sous," she said, looking up at him sadly. "Is that all the money you have in the world?" She nodded. "Then four francs and twenty sous it is."	money subjectivity value perception	Iain Pears
9071c18	Many of you know little about storytelling. Before I begin, let me explain. The Story is the story of us all. If understood properly, it is of immense power. It tells you who you are, what you might expect from this life. Some believe it can foretell the future. Mastery of the Story gives you mastery over life itself. It contains precious, holy relics of the age of giants which preceded us. It tells of our rise, our glories and our occasion..		Iain Pears
50c2cc0	T]he concern of man is not his future but his present, not the world but his soul. We must be just, we must strive, we must engage ourselves with the business of the world for our own sake, because through that, and through contemplation in equal measure, our soul is purified and brought closer to the divine. ... Thought and deed conjoined are crucial. ... The attempt must be made; the outcome is irrelevant. Right action is a pale material ..	mankind present future success philosophy purification deeds souls goals divinity failure thought	Iain Pears
6298c9c	Pope] Clement waved his hands in irritation as if to dismiss the very idea. "The world is crumbling into ruin. Armies are marching. Men and women are dying everywhere, in huge numbers. Fields are abandoned and towns deserted. The wrath of the Lord is upon us and He may be intending to destroy the whole of creation. People are without leaders and direction. They want to be given a reason for this, so they can be reassured, so they will retur..	mankind god-s-wrath scapegoats victimization papal-authority end-of-the-world victims decay pope ruin genocide civilization plague panic punishment turmoil jews	Iain Pears
ffd8a8c	He (William Cort) had some desire to be successful, but it did not burn so strongly in him that he was prepared to overcome his character to achieve it.	personality character	Iain Pears
21606da	She had lost herself in this old work, her personality dissolving into it, so that she had been set free. The immortality of the soul lies in its dissolution; this was the cryptic comment that so frustrated Olivier and which Julien had only ever grasped as evidence for the history of a particular school of thought. He had known all about its history, but Julia knew what it meant. He found the realization strangely reassuring.	immortality freedom meaning philosophy self-abandonment liberation thought soul	Iain Pears
4e78164	Civilization depends on continually making the effort, of never giving in. It needs to be cared for by men of goodwill, protected from the dark.		Iain Pears
9490e8f	I had never before spent a night with a woman, had someone lying by my side in the quietness of the dark, hearing her breath and feeling her warmth beside me. It is a sin, and it is a crime. I say it frankly, for I have been taught so all my life, and only madmen have said otherwise. The Bible says it, the fathers of the church have said it, the prelates now repeat it without end, and all the statues of the land prescribe punishment for wha..		Iain Pears
a3c7d92	The simple fact that something has not been done, is no proof that it cannot be.		Iain Pears
f93c7aa	Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.	virtue politics	Iain Pears
8bc7bad	And a more foolish notion can scarcely be imagined, it being obvious that the reader is only informed of what the writer wishes him to know, and is thus seduced into believing almost anything.		Iain Pears
312bf5e	He had volunteered early, rather than waiting to be conscripted, for he felt a duty and an obligation to serve, and believed that ... being willing to fight for his country and the liberty it represented, would make some small difference. ... His idealism was one of the casualties of the carnage [of Verdun].	war wwi	Iain Pears
9a4b42f	Considering he was neither priest nor scholar, the young man gave sensible, thoughtful replies -- the more so, perhaps, for being untrained, for he had not learned what he should believe or should not believe. Present a statement to him in flagrant contradiction to all Christian doctrine and he could be persuaded to agree on its good sense, unless he remembered it was the sort of thing of which pyres are made for the incautious.	freedom reason education philosophy good-sense freedom-of-religion inquisition doctrine schooling rationality freedom-of-thought independent-thought persecution	Iain Pears
ea80093	Felix had gone to live in a lotus land of his imagination. Where what is desired is dreamed of as already happened, where obstacles dissolve under the weight of desire, and where reality has vanished entirely.	futility imagination dreams cloud-cuckoo-land irreality phantasy desires wishful-thinking wishes irrationality	Iain Pears
c1b00c9	Caius was one of those who gloried in his ignorance, called his lack of letters purity, scorned any subtlety of thought or expression. A man for his time, indeed.	stupidity education coarseness crudeness ignorance	Iain Pears
d115b59	H]e initially conceived of Olivier as a man of the greatest promise destroyed by a fatal flaw, the unreasoning passion for a woman dissolving into violence, desperately weakening everything he tried to do. For how could learning and poetry be defended when it produced such dreadful results and was advanced by such imperfect creatures? At least Julien did not see the desperate fate of the ruined lover as a nineteenth-century novelist or a po..	passion poetry love romanticism perception	Iain Pears
6263174	God forbid that I should ever suffer the shame of publishing a book for money, or of having one of my family so demean themselves. How can one tell who might read it? No worthy book has ever been written for gain, I think;	writing	Iain Pears
806ae42	Do you wish to speak in Provencal, French, or Latin? They are all I can manage, I'm afraid." "Any will do," the rabbi replied in Provencal. "Splendid. Latin it is," said Pope Clement."	papal-authority pope languages communication conceit mockery	Iain Pears

09b8acf

For the first time, she did want more. She did not know what she wanted, knew that it was dangerous and that she should rest content with what she had, but she knew an emptiness deep inside her, which began to ache.

dreams desires contentment longing

Iain Pears

71f8972

Was not Hypatia the greatest philosopher of Alexandria, and a true martyr to the old values of learning? She was torn to pieces by a mob of incensed Christians not because she was a woman, but because her learning was so profound, her skills at dialectic so extensive that she reduced all who queried her to embarrassed silence. They could not argue with her, so they murdered her.

murder women learning education hypatia-of-alexandria philosophers dialectics skills superiority greatness suppression knowledge

Iain Pears

e0f708f

Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.

faith religion blind-faith discussion judaism doctrine disagreement shouting freedom-of-thought independent-thought jews

Iain Pears

51d872a

When all this is over, people will try to blame the Germans alone, and the Germans will try to blame the Nazis alone, and the Nazis will try to blame Hitler alone. They will make him bear the sins of the world. But it's not true. You suspected what was happening, and so did I. It was already too late over a year ago. I caused a reporter to lose his job because you told me to. He was deported. The day I did that I made my little contribution..

responsibility deportation denunciation personal-responsibility nazis genocide civilization hitler willful-ignorance cowardice knowledge guilt evil

Iain Pears

e74fbe6

She was looking for something I could never give her." Again his dark eyes bored into Julia's mind. "You have something of the same about you, young woman. Take my advice: Don't think you will find it in another person. You won't. It's not there. You must find it in yourself."

individuality self-awareness self-reliance search

Iain Pears

6c9c7f9

Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts.

mankind mind reason philosophy continuance civilization body rationality materialism

Iain Pears

3d78491

In my small way, I preserved and catalogued, and dipped into the vast ocean of learning that awaited, knowing all the time that the life of one man was insufficient for even the smallest part of the wonders that lay within. It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do so properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.

wonder learning life-lessons insufficiency knowledge

Iain Pears

f5fce47

The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind." (Marco)"

religion corruption devil

Iain Pears

c6d54e6

The evil done by men of goodwill is the worst of all ... We have done terrible things, for the best of reasons, and that makes it worse.

goodness

Iain Pears

6ef90ba

Every cataclysm is welcomed by somebody; there is always someone to rejoice at disaster and see in it the prospect of a new beginning and a better world.

life

Iain Pears

b073a38

Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless.

virtue philosophy wisdom public-service tyranny power

Iain Pears

67fe7a9

The point of civilization is to be civilized; the purpose of action is to perpetuate society, for only in society can philosophy truly take place.

black-plague clement-vi dream-of-scipio gaul iain-pears late-antiquity-rome vichy-france provence wwii christians holocaust jews

Iain Pears

6d8c5b9

Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point ... Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she..

war good denunciation ordinariness pettiness nazis wwii civilization resentment jews evil

Iain Pears

421c020

This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you." He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at th..

individuality independence paintings daughters fulfillment skills duty gift expectation perception creativity obedience

Iain Pears

2c702f6

He who profits by villainy, has perpetrated it.

villainy profit wrongdoing vice

Iain Pears

9ec9af3

Politics bores you?" Bronsen said. Julien smiled. "It does. Apologies, sir, and it is not that I haven't tried to be fascinated. But careful and meticulous research has suggested the hypothesis that all politicians are liars, fools, and tricksters, and I have as yet come across no evidence to the contrary. They can do great damage, and rarely any good. It is the job of the sensible man to try and protect civilization from their depradations..

lies politics depradation damage scholarship politicians deceit

Iain Pears

aafbed8

It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do it properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.

Iain Pears

5bcb784

Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth." "No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come to the way of leaving it." "And how do they leave? How is the ascent made? Must one learn virtue?" Here she laughs. "You have read too much, and learned too little. Virtue is a road, not a destinati..

mankind understanding virtue enlightenment fear philosophy truth soul

Iain Pears

fbf8f64

Manlius ... took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surpri..

understanding education philosophy like-mindedness crudeness plato vulgarity civilization materialism knowledge power

Iain Pears

8e07111

I have a theory that too much learning unbalances the mind.

Iain Pears

b412a98

I have brought peace to this land, and security," he began. "And what of your soul, when you use the cleverness of argument to cloak such acts? Do you think that the peace of a thousand cancels out the unjust death of one single person? It may be desirable, it may win you praise from those who have happily survived you and prospered from your deeds, but you have committed ignoble acts, and have been too proud to own them. I have waited pati..

virtue injustice killing good learning philosophy public-office doctrine prosperity peace pride vice soul values evil

Iain Pears

3fa166c

In a world of chemically induced sanity, a little lunacy confers immense advantages.

Iain Pears

8faef7b

Generally speaking, our minds impose an entirely artificial order on the world. It is the only way that such an inadequate instrument as our brain can function. It cannot deal with the complexity of reality, so simplifies everything until it can, putting events into an artificial order so they can be dealt with one at a time, rather than all at once as they should be. Such a way of interpreting existence is learnt, rather in the way that ou..

Iain Pears

f12aa7c

Philosophy cannot be extinguished, though men will try ... The spirit seeks the light, that is its nature. It wishes to return to its origin, and must forever try to reach enlightenment.

philosophy human-spirit

Iain Pears

8d2812b

And here was the moment. The end of it all, for civilization was merely another name for friendship, and friendship was coming to an end.

friendship

Iain Pears

0db80d0

A company is a moral imbecile. It has no sense of right or wrong. Any restraints have to come from the outside, from laws and customs which forbid it from doing certain things of which we disapprove. But it is a restraint that reduces profits. Which is why all companies will strain forever to break the bounds of the law, to act unfettered in their pursuit of advantage. That is the only way they can survive because the more powerful will dev..

Iain Pears

096837c

A hundred francs! Oh, dear me! It is worth millions of francs, my child. But my -- dealer -- here tells me that in fact a picture is worth only what someone will give for it. How much money do you have?" Julia took out her purse and counted. "Four francs and twenty sous," she said, looking up at him sadly. "Is that all the money you have in the world?" She nodded. "Then four francs and twenty sous it is."

money subjectivity value perception

Iain Pears

9071c18

Many of you know little about storytelling. Before I begin, let me explain. The Story is the story of us all. If understood properly, it is of immense power. It tells you who you are, what you might expect from this life. Some believe it can foretell the future. Mastery of the Story gives you mastery over life itself. It contains precious, holy relics of the age of giants which preceded us. It tells of our rise, our glories and our occasion..

Iain Pears

50c2cc0

T]he concern of man is not his future but his present, not the world but his soul. We must be just, we must strive, we must engage ourselves with the business of the world for our own sake, because through that, and through contemplation in equal measure, our soul is purified and brought closer to the divine. ... Thought and deed conjoined are crucial. ... The attempt must be made; the outcome is irrelevant. Right action is a pale material ..

mankind present future success philosophy purification deeds souls goals divinity failure thought

Iain Pears

6298c9c

Pope] Clement waved his hands in irritation as if to dismiss the very idea. "The world is crumbling into ruin. Armies are marching. Men and women are dying everywhere, in huge numbers. Fields are abandoned and towns deserted. The wrath of the Lord is upon us and He may be intending to destroy the whole of creation. People are without leaders and direction. They want to be given a reason for this, so they can be reassured, so they will retur..

mankind god-s-wrath scapegoats victimization papal-authority end-of-the-world victims decay pope ruin genocide civilization plague panic punishment turmoil jews

Iain Pears

ffd8a8c

He (William Cort) had some desire to be successful, but it did not burn so strongly in him that he was prepared to overcome his character to achieve it.

personality character

Iain Pears

21606da

She had lost herself in this old work, her personality dissolving into it, so that she had been set free. The immortality of the soul lies in its dissolution; this was the cryptic comment that so frustrated Olivier and which Julien had only ever grasped as evidence for the history of a particular school of thought. He had known all about its history, but Julia knew what it meant. He found the realization strangely reassuring.

immortality freedom meaning philosophy self-abandonment liberation thought soul

Iain Pears

4e78164

Civilization depends on continually making the effort, of never giving in. It needs to be cared for by men of goodwill, protected from the dark.

Iain Pears

9490e8f

I had never before spent a night with a woman, had someone lying by my side in the quietness of the dark, hearing her breath and feeling her warmth beside me. It is a sin, and it is a crime. I say it frankly, for I have been taught so all my life, and only madmen have said otherwise. The Bible says it, the fathers of the church have said it, the prelates now repeat it without end, and all the statues of the land prescribe punishment for wha..

Iain Pears

a3c7d92

The simple fact that something has not been done, is no proof that it cannot be.

Iain Pears

f93c7aa

Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.

virtue politics

Iain Pears

8bc7bad

And a more foolish notion can scarcely be imagined, it being obvious that the reader is only informed of what the writer wishes him to know, and is thus seduced into believing almost anything.

Iain Pears

312bf5e

He had volunteered early, rather than waiting to be conscripted, for he felt a duty and an obligation to serve, and believed that ... being willing to fight for his country and the liberty it represented, would make some small difference. ... His idealism was one of the casualties of the carnage [of Verdun].

war wwi

Iain Pears

9a4b42f

Considering he was neither priest nor scholar, the young man gave sensible, thoughtful replies -- the more so, perhaps, for being untrained, for he had not learned what he should believe or should not believe. Present a statement to him in flagrant contradiction to all Christian doctrine and he could be persuaded to agree on its good sense, unless he remembered it was the sort of thing of which pyres are made for the incautious.

freedom reason education philosophy good-sense freedom-of-religion inquisition doctrine schooling rationality freedom-of-thought independent-thought persecution

Iain Pears

ea80093

Felix had gone to live in a lotus land of his imagination. Where what is desired is dreamed of as already happened, where obstacles dissolve under the weight of desire, and where reality has vanished entirely.

futility imagination dreams cloud-cuckoo-land irreality phantasy desires wishful-thinking wishes irrationality

Iain Pears

c1b00c9

Caius was one of those who gloried in his ignorance, called his lack of letters purity, scorned any subtlety of thought or expression. A man for his time, indeed.

stupidity education coarseness crudeness ignorance

Iain Pears

d115b59

H]e initially conceived of Olivier as a man of the greatest promise destroyed by a fatal flaw, the unreasoning passion for a woman dissolving into violence, desperately weakening everything he tried to do. For how could learning and poetry be defended when it produced such dreadful results and was advanced by such imperfect creatures? At least Julien did not see the desperate fate of the ruined lover as a nineteenth-century novelist or a po..

passion poetry love romanticism perception

Iain Pears

6263174

God forbid that I should ever suffer the shame of publishing a book for money, or of having one of my family so demean themselves. How can one tell who might read it? No worthy book has ever been written for gain, I think;

writing

Iain Pears

806ae42

Do you wish to speak in Provencal, French, or Latin? They are all I can manage, I'm afraid." "Any will do," the rabbi replied in Provencal. "Splendid. Latin it is," said Pope Clement."

papal-authority pope languages communication conceit mockery

Iain Pears