Clouds of Witness Quotes

“Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“My dear child, you can give it a long name if you like, but I'm an old-fashioned woman and I call it mother-wit, and it's so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Lord Peter Wimsey: Facts, Bunter, must have facts. When I was a small boy, I always hated facts. Thought they were nasty, hard things, all nobs.
Mervyn Bunter: Yes, my lord. My old mother always used to say...
Lord Peter Wimsey: Your mother, Bunter? Oh, I never knew you had one. I always thought you just sort of came along already-made, so it were. Oh, excuse me. How infernally rude of me. Beg pardon, I'm sure.
Mervyn Bunter: That's all right, my lord.
Lord Peter Wimsey: Thank you.
Mervyn Bunter: Yes indeed, I was one of seven.
Lord Peter Wimsey: That is pure invention, Bunter, I know better. You are unique. But you were going to tell me about your mater.
Mervyn Bunter: Oh yes, my lord. My old mother always used to say that facts are like cows. If you stare them in the face hard enough, and they generally run away.
Lord Peter Wimsey: By Jove, that's courageous, Bunter. What a splendid person she must be.
Mervyn Bunter: I think so, my lord.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Wimsey stooped for an empty sardine-tin which lay, horribly battered, at his feet, and slung it idly into the quag. It struck the surface with a noise like a wet kiss, and vanished instantly. With that instinct which prompts one, when depressed, to wallow in every circumstance of gloom, Peter leaned sadly against the hurdles and abandoned himself to a variety of shallow considerations upon (1) The vanity of human wishes; (2) Mutability; (3) First love; (4) The decay of idealism; (5) The aftermath of the Great war; (6) Birth-control; and (7) The fallacy of free-will.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“It's not the innocent young things that need gentle handling--it's the ones that have been frightened and hurt.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“I say, I don’t think the human frame is very thoughtfully constructed for this sleuthhound business. If one could go on all fours, or had eyes in ones knees, it would be a lot more practical’… ‘What luck! Here’s a deep, damp ditch on the other side, which I shall now proceed to fall into.’ A slithering crash proclaimed that he had carried out his intention.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“I didn't mind thinking you were a murderer," said Lady Mary spitefully, "but I do mind you being such an ass.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“A man was taken to the Zoo and shown the giraffe. After gazing at it a little in silence: 'I don't believe it,' he said.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“I think my mother's talents deserve a little acknowledgement. I said so to her, as a matter of fact, and she replied in these memorable words: "My dear child, you can give it a long name if you like, but I'm an old-fashioned woman and I call it mother-wit, and it's so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“And you, Mary, if you must run off to London, why do it in that unfinished manner, so that I was left without the car, and couldn't catch anything until the midnight train at Northallerton? It's so much better to do things neatly and properly, even stupid things.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“...Perhaps you didn't say much about him, mother, but Gerald said lots - dreadful things!'
'Yes,' said the Duchess, 'he said what he thought. The present generation does, you know. To the uninitiated, I admit, dear, it does sound a little rude.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“But the worse you express yourself these days the more profound people think you--though that's nothing new.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Lord Peter Wimsey stretched himself luxuriously between the sheets provided by the Hotel Meurice.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“I s'pose you couldn't get 'em to bring it in 'Death by the Visitation of God,' could you, Biggs?'' suggested Lord Peter. ''Sort of judgment for wantin' to marry into our family, what?”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“It's so much better to do things neatly and properly, even stupid things.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Ah, well, as the old pagan said of the Gospels, after all, it was a long time ago, and we'll hope it wasn't true.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“The departure of the church-going element had induced a more humanitarian atmosphere.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“She suffered much from the adjacent presence of her daughter-in-law, whose misfortune it was to become disagreeable when she was unhappy--perhaps the heaviest curse that can be laid on man, who is born to sorrow.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“You said ‘The glass-blower’s cat is bompstable',” retorted Lord Peter. “It’s a perfectly rippin’ word, but I don’t know what you mean by it.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Fou!” “Who?” “I didn’t say ‘who’; I said ‘fou,’ ” “I know you did. I said who?” “Who?” “Who’s fou?” “Oh, is. By Jove, ‘suis’! ‘Je suis fou.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Joyce has freed us from the superstition of syntax," agreed the curly man.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Did you want to be a missionary in your youth? I did. I think most kids do some time or another, which is odd, seein´ how unsatisfactory most of us turn out.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“honestly--then dishonestly.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“There are many difficulties inherent in a teleological view of creation,” said Parker placidly.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“He was a respectable scholar in five or six languages, a musician of some skill and more understanding, something of an expert in toxicology, a collector of rare editions, an entertaining man-about-town, and a common sensationalist. He had been seen at half-past twelve on a Sunday morning walking in Hyde Park in a top-hat and frock-coat, reading the News of the World. His passion for the unexplored led him to hunt up obscure pamphlets in the British Museum, to unravel the emotional history of income tax collectors, and to find out where his own drains led to.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“He said no pleasure ever came up to the anticipation, and so he lived like a hermit—doing nothing, but planning all the things he might have done.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Hitherto," said Lord Peter, as they picked their painful way through the little wood on the trail of Gent's No. 10's, "I have always maintained that those obliging criminals who strew their tracks with little articles of personal adornment--here he is, on a squashed fungus--were an invention of detective fiction for the benefit of the author. I see that I have still something to learn about my job.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“May we take it that he was in exceptionally lively spirits?” suggested Counsel. “Take it in any spirit you like,” muttered the witness, adding, more happily, “Take a peg of John Begg.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“In middle life she still made a point of ignoring those newspaper paragraphs which bore such headlines as: “ASSAULT UPON A SCHOOLTEACHER AT CRICKLEWOOD”; “DEATH IN A PINT OF STOUT”; “£75 FOR A KISS”; or “She called him HUBBYKINS.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness