Quotes from Bruce Marshall

. . .the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.

the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.

That's just the trouble really. Nobody's shocked by anything anymore; we're not shocked by deceit, cruelty, lust for power, faithlessness, money-grubbing. Indeed, we accept it as inevitable that each and every one of our fellow men should be impelled only by selfishness. Well, sir, let me say that it's stupid of us not to be shocked, because the continuation of our civilisation depends precisely upon our ability to be shocked.

The colonel could swear with vehemence and originality when he was angry, spilling his oaths in a pretty pepper and disproving Talleyrand's definition of swearing as the means by which the inarticulate gave themselves the impression of eloquence.

Il Canonico rispose che lui non era affatto d'idee larghe e che, per dire il vero, questo non gli dispiaceva, perché la larghezza d'idee spesso non era altro che superficialità.

Erano passati quei tempi, perché gli uomini erano stati così sciocchi da pretendere di effettuare una riforma cominciando dall'esterno anziché dall'interno e da non capire che una dottrina non è necessariamente falsa per il solo fatto che i suoi aderenti non ne sono all'altezza.

It's a nonsense to say that men should be Britons and Frenchmen and Russians first and communists and Christians and fascists afterwards, for it is only by making a philosophy and not a nation prevail that we shall every attain universal peace. That's why this war's decided nothing, really, because it was fought for national survival and not for philosophical penetration.

Non aveva mai capito perché la gente che leggeva Edgar Wallace per gusto e che riteneva che i gatti neri portassero sfortuna dovesse sentirsi offesa dalla dottrina della transustanziazione.

I think nuns are fun. I had a friend who was at a convent once, and really she said it was wizard and that the nuns were frightfully broadminded and allowed her to make up as much as she wanted to and have masses of boy friends call and take her out, but of course, she was Church of England really.

They followed her, walking supererogatively on tiptoe, as though afraid to awaken the saints in whom they had never believed.

The colonel mustn't really mind the Army being a topsy-turvy place because the Church was often a topsy-turvy place as well, with curates and chaplains often holier than canons and bishops, but of course that wasn't quite the same, because the Lord was there to guide the Church, and although she didn't want to be rude, she didn't think that He had always guided the army in quite the same way.

At first Rumania may have been just a little neutral against the Allies, but that was because the rogues who governed her did not understand the 'brincibles' of democracy, but by the end of the war, although she was too small country to make spectacular gestures, Rumania was being very neutral against Germany.

The thought had then occurred to her that, as it was no longer easy to be prayerful in a world which had divorced pleasure from God, there was only one solution left and that was to be gay in a convent.

Please not to laugh at me. God must matter terribly to men when they are lying bleeding to death in the snow. The memory of the laughter of friends and the tinkle of glasses doesn't help them when one is alone for the last time in pain and with final knowledge of the purpose of life.

His tired face was lit with a brief beauty as he smiled, and the two nuns and Colonel Nicobar and Twingo smiled too, glad to find a common ground for merriment, however momentary. For a few seconds Stalin, Pope Pius the Twelfth, and King George the Sixth laughed together in the persons of their representatives.

Every little betrayal, every little rhyming of conviction and convenience, every little selfishness, every little preference of immediate comfort to ultimate good hastens the coming of the next war.

Herr Oberst, if you were one of my nuns, I should order you under holy obedience to hurt my feelings. As you are not a nun, however, I can only request you to hurt them.

Communists cannot possibly do without God what Christians have failed to do with God.

Perhaps some of them chose Schwester Kasimira's way, glorying in their discomfort because they knew that Jesus Christ hadn't stayed at the Ritz either. Perhaps there were unknown saints, Saint Ignatius Loyolas queuing at bus stops and Saint Augustines of Hippo giving up their seats on the tram. The thought made him briefly happy, seeming consecrate some of the aridity of his soldiering.

It must be difficult for a Latin mind, even when illumined by the Holy Ghost, to accept hordes of non-practising Presbyterian highlanders, copulating G.I.s, and predatory Russians as more adequately defending Christian civilisation than the millions of Catholics who had fought against them.

In all groups and assemblies of men there are good and there are bad men. It is unprofitable to generalize. There are good Russians and bad Russians just as there are good Germans and bad Germans and good Englishmen and bad Englishmen. I mean that the distribution of what Reverend Mother Auxilia would call the grace of God cannot be charted geographically.

Please do not be misunderstanding me. The soldier who fights and drinks too much and makes love to pretty girls is an unhappy man, and he liked Jesus Christ and all that he has said, but he often is not liking very much those who say that they speak in His Name.

When we were fighting the war we were told that we were doing right, but that we have lost it, we are told that we have been doing wrong. We are wanting to know why.

Sometimes I think that the only way to unite the nations of the world would be for the earth to be attacked by Mars. We'd all love each other like hell then.