Ivy Compton-Burnett Quotes

There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not always the best.

Never is a long word.

Magnifying a matter is not the way to mend it.

My youth is escaping without giving me anything it owes me.

it is in our minds that we live much of our life.

There is more difference within the sexes than between them.

Real life seems to have no plots.

A person who can really be called an unselfish person, has no place in life.

There is probably nothing like living together for blinding people to each other.

Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth,' said his cousin. 'But we seem to have no other.

I never know why self-sacrifice is noble. Why is it better to sacrifice oneself than someone else?

We can build upon foundations anywhere if they are well and firmly laid.

some people always have a touch of youth about them.

As regards plot I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots. And as I think a plot desirable and almost necessary, I have this extra grudge against life.

People have never lost what they think they have.

A plot is like the bones of a person, not interesting like expression, or signs of experience, but the support of the whole.

Many people misjudge the permanent effect of sorrow, and their capacity to live in the past.

People who have power respond simply. They have no minds but their own.

We none of us talk to people as we do behind their backs.

When I die, people will say it is the best thing for me. It is because they know it is the worst. They want to avoid the feeling of pity. As though they were the people most concerned!

A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit.

At a certain point my novels set. They set just as hard as that jam jar. And then I know they are finished.

People's weaker side is not necessarily their truer self.

As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.

You should not want to know the things in people's minds. If you were meant to hear them, they would be said.