Arthur & George Quotes

“If a man cannot tell what he wants to do, then he must find out what he ought to do. If desire has become complicated, then hold fast to duty.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“And that was all the part of it - the way you were obliged to live. You stifled a groan, you lied about your love, you deceived your legal wife, and all in the name of honour. That was the damned paradox of it - in order to behave well, you have to behave badly.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“He always thought that Touie's long illness would somehow prepare him for her death. He always imagined that grief anf guilt, if they followed, would be more clear-edged, more defined, more finite. Instead they seem like weather, like clouds constantly re-forming into new shapes, blown by nameless, unidentifiable winds.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“If these are indeed the spirits of Englishmen and Englishwomen who have passed over into the next world, surely they would know how to form a proper queue?”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Every bird you downed bore pebbles in its gizzard from a land the maps ignored.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“It was perfectly possible to be an artist, yet also to be robust and responsible.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“wear flannel next to your skin, and never believe in eternal punishment.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Honour is not just a matter of internal good feeling, but also of external behaviour.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“The way, the truth and the life. You go on your way through life telling the truth.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Arthur was frequently baffled by the complacency with which people went on with what they insouciantly called their lives, as if both the word and the thing made perfect sense to them.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“. . . atheism, which is mere emptiness and too depressing for words, and leads to socialism.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“...the complications of life do not end at the altar; some might say that this is where they begin.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Fearless to the strong; humble to the weak,”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“A facetious if logical question comes into George's mind, from where he cannot tell, unless as a reaction to all this unwonted intensity. If these are indeed the spirits of Englishmen and Englishwomen who have passed over into the next world, surely they would know how to form a proper queue?”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“The words were more than a poem, more than a prayer, they were the expression of a truth against which lies would break.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“The fundamental mystery of women can, he thinks, be encompassed and held at bay as long as he is allowed to explain things to them.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“It is the suddenness which has undone him; also, the gap between dream and reality.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Why did people imagine that progress consisted of believing in less, rather than believing in more, in opening yourself to more of the universe?”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George

“Arthur, my dear,” she interrupts. “There is something I wish to talk about.” He looks surprised, and slightly alarmed. If he has always valued her directness, there is a residual suspicion within him that whenever a woman says something must be talked about, it is rarely something to a man’s comfort or advantage.”
― Julian Barnes, Arthur & George