Laura > Laura's Quotes

“Love I never associated with the senses, it was not even passion that I wanted; it was a conscious, subtle, elaborate sensuality, which I knew not how to procure.”
― Arthur Symons, Spiritual Adventures

“Nothing is more comforting than the weaknesses of persons obviously superior to oneself.”
― Isaiah Berlin

“The most effective deceit is the one which is never discovered.”
― John le Carré, A Small Town in Germany

“We lead two lives, and the half of our soul is madness, and half heaven is lit by a black sun. I say I am a man, is the other that hides in me?”
― Arthur Machen, The White People and Other Stories

“The first step towards mastering time is always to make time meaningless”
― Robert Aickman

“The happiest types I've ever known ran puppet shows - turning puppets into people. It works much better than turning people into puppets.”
― J.B. Priestley

“The tortured are a class apart. You can imagine – just – where they’ve been, but never what they’ve brought back.”
― John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies

“I had once asked him if he felt happy hiding in the internet and he said yes, it was his home. On a good day it is the bright field that contains all souls but on a bad day it is the final darkness, where misery is gapingly exposed.”
― Andrew O'Hagan, The Secret Life: Three True Stories

“True confessions are written with tears only. But my tears would drown the world, as my inner fire would reduce it to ashes.”
― Emil Cioran, On the Heights of Despair

“It was not certain what significance the ceremony held... but the formality was no less sacred for it being unintelligible”
― Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

“Are you lishening, my pretty vermin, are you lishening?”
― Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

“Clive, surveying the scene from the churchyard, was not particularly concerned with the how or why. It was typical of his unquestioning, uncomplicated nature, as well-meaning as the printed verse in a Christmas card. Like the card, too, he was a symbol of goodwill towards all men. His life was one perpetual effort to be liked. This had naturally resulted in considerable unpopularity. His late-autumn holiday was being spent alone.”
― Elizabeth Walter, The Spirit of the Place and Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter

“Stir-fry that in your brain wok!”
― Timur Vermes, Look Who's Back