Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes - Page 2

A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man-and the dogma is the drama ... The plot pivots upon a single character, and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: 'What think ye of Christ?'... He was emphatically not a dull m an in his human lifetime, and if he was God, there can be nothing dull about God either.

Paradoxical as it may seem, to believe in youth is to look backward; to look forward we must believe in age.

It seems to me quite disastrous that the idea should have got about that Christianity is an other-worldly, unreal, idealistic kind of religion that suggests that if we are good we shall be happy. On the contrary, it is fiercely and even harshly realistic, insisting that there are certain eternal achievements that make even happiness look like trash.

One must not only die daily, but every day we must be born again.

We've got to laugh or break our hearts in this damnable world.

To foment grievance and to set men at variance is the trade by which agitators thrive and journalists make money.

It is ridiculous to take on a man's job just in order to be able to say that 'a woman has done it - yah!' The only decent reason for tackling a job is that it is your job and you want to do it.

Every great man has a woman behind him ... And every great woman has some man or other in front of her, tripping her up.

The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.

The recognition of the truth that we get in the artist's work comes to us as a revelation of new truth. We did not know it before, but the moment it is shown to us, we know that, somehow or other, we had always known it.

People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.

The doctrine of hell is not "mediaeval priestcraft" for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ's deliberate judgment on sin.... We cannot repudiate hell without altogether repudiating Christ.

The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.

The Devil is a spiritual lunatic, but, like many lunatics, he is extremely plausible and cunning.

I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.

The rule seemed to be that a great woman must either die unwed ... or find a still greater man to marry her. ... The great man, on the other hand, could marry where he liked, not being restricted to great women; indeed, it was often found sweet and commendable in him to choose a woman of no sort of greatness at all.

The trouble is. . .that everybody sneers at restrictions and demands freedom, till something annoying happens; then they demand angrily what has become of the discipline.

As I grow older and older, And totter toward the tomb, I find that I care less and less Who goes to bed with whom.

The Devil ... is much better served by exploiting our virtues than by appealing to our lower passions; consequently, it is when the Devil looks most noble and reasonable that he is most dangerous.

Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him -- or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.

To make a precise scientific description of reality out of words is like trying to build a rigid structure out of pure quicksilver.

The dogma of the Incarnation is the most dramatic thing about Christianity, and indeed, the most dramatic thing that ever entered the mind of man; but if you tell people so, they stare at you in bewilderment.

I love you - I am at rest with you - I have come home.

Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun ... But underneath they feed a hunger for justice ... you offer to divert them, and you show them by stealth the orderly world in which we should all try to be living.