Quotes from Patrick White

Human behavior is a series of lunges, of which, it is sometimes sensed, the direction is inevitable.

silence, simplicity and humility . . . the only proper state for the artist as for the human being

Such was the texture of her marble. [In a description of Laura Trevelyan.]

There are moments when the eyes flow into each other. Then the souls are wrapped around each other across a distance

Two people do not lose themselves at the identical moment, or else they might find each other, and be saved. It is not as simple as that.

But the boy was not cheated by her ignorance. He was not intensely interested in answers, the things themselves were enough. So he ran on, holding the leaf by its twig, or feather by its quill, and whereas his mother thought mostly of arriving, discovery kept him in a state of endless being.

For several hours we were thrown and battered — till suddenly calm felt — the calmest calm I have ever experienced at sea. God had willed us to enter the eye — you know about it? the still centre of the storm — where we lay at rest — surrounded by hundreds of seabirds, also resting on the water.

But achievements differ in different men. It is not for me, unfortunately so, to build a solid house and live in it the kind of life that is lived in such houses. That is why' - and he began guzzling his wine - 'it is disturbing,' he said. 'Honest people can destroy most effectually such foundations as some of us have.

So he went down through the house, its silence alive with clocks, suggestions of subterfuge, the blatant echoes of downright lies, together with hints of the exasperating, unknowable truth.

Los ateos, por lo general, lo son por razones mezquinas —aseveró Voss—. La más mezquina de todas ellas estriba en su propia falta de grandeza espiritual, que les impide concebir la idea de un Poder Divino. Al

You have taken the important, essential core of the apple, including (one must not forget) the nasty pips, and scales (I do not know what you call those little things) which must be spat out.

In general,' Voss replied, 'it is necessary to communicate without knowledge of the language.

And the cavern of fire was enormous, labyrinthine, that received the man. He branched and flamed, glowed and increased, and was suddenly extinguished in the little puffs of smoke and tired thoughts.

So that, in the end, there was no end.

The knot of her hands and the pulses in her throat rejected any possibility that their meeting might be a casual one. But, of course, she could not explain, nor was her face of any more assistance than her tongue; in fact, as she herself knew, in moments of stress she could resemble a congested turkey.

There comes a moment when an individual who is too honest to take refuge in the old illusion of self-importance is suspended agonizingly between the flat sky and the flat earth, and prayer is no more that a slight gumminess on the roof of the mouth.

Souls unite in the face of violence, if only on the common ground of frailty.

Swallows flew, the scythes of their wings mowing the light.

But the purpose and nature are never clearly revealed. Human behaviour is a series of lunges, of which, it is sometimes sensed, the direction is inevitable.

The past is desirable, more often than not, because it can make no demands.

History is not acceptable until it has been sifted for the truth.

stones, even, are smoother for the dust.