In the sex-war, thoughtlessness is a weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female. Both are reciprocally generated, but a woman's desire for revenge outlasts all other emotion. Yet when every unkind word about women has been said, we have still to admit, with Byron, that they are nicer than men. They are more devoted, more unselfish and more emotionally sincere. When the long fuse of cruelty, deceit and revenge is set alight, it is male thoughtlessness which has fired it.
Cyril ConnollyGreen leaves on a dead tree is our epitaph-green leaves, dear reader, on a dead tree.
Cyril ConnollyWe must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament, and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy.
Cyril ConnollyThe headmistress was an able instructress in French and history and we learned with her as fast as fear could teach us.
Cyril ConnollyDoing is overrated, and success undesirable, but the bitterness of failure even more so.
Cyril ConnollyA stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; - such is our personality.
Cyril Connolly