Quotes from Dorothy L. Sayers

as Aristotle might say, it is an improbable-possible.

I am abso-bally-lutely positive

Lord, teach us to take our hearts and look them in the face, however difficult it may be." CHAPTER XVI From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From Murders Benedicite.

But sleep is only an illusion of weakness and, unless it appeals to our protective instincts, is likely to arouse in us a nasty, bullying spirit. From a height of conscious superiority we look down on the sleeper, thus exposing himself in all his frailty, and indulge in derisive comment upon his appearance, his manners and (if the occasion is a public one) the absurdity of the position in which he has placed his companion, if he has one, and particularly if we are that companion.

Boil my brains!" said Lord Peter. "Boil 'em and mash 'em and serve 'em up with butter as a dish of turnips, for it's damn well all they're fit for! Look at me!

It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle.

Since you are so good," replied Mr. Bunter, "the dispatch of the grocer's assistant with streaky rashers and eggs would enable us to augment the deficiencies of the breakfast menu.

It is not known why motorists, who sing the joys of the open road, spend so much petrol every week-end grinding their way to Southend and Brighton and Margate, in the stench of each other's exhausts, one hand on the horn and one foot on the brake, their eyes starting from their orbits in the nerve-racking search for cops, corners, blind turnings, and cross-road suicides.

That a work of creation struggles and insistently demands to be brought into being is a fact that no genuine artist would think of denying.

I don't think much of your burglary, Bunter,' said Lord Peter.

Well, it is the law, my lord,' replied Mr Blundell, 'and it's not my place to argue about it.

Scotland Yard! he cried.

If thine eye be single, the whole body is full of light

It doesn't do for people, especially doctors, to go about 'thinking' things. They may get into frightful trouble.

When I was a lad, there wasn't none of this myster'ousness about. Everything was straightforward an' proper. But ever since eddication come in, it's been nothing but puzzlement, and fillin' up forms and 'ospital papers and sustificates and such, before you can get even as much as your Lord George pension.

so interesting and a really remarkable face, though perhaps not strictly good-looking, and all the more interesting for that, because good-looking people are so often cows.

Jerrykins, or Pickled Gherkins. Lord Peter was not one of those born uncles who delight old nurses by their

Then, with many false starts and blank feet, returning and filling and erasing painfully as she went, she began to write again, knowing with a deep inner certainty that somehow, after long and bitter wandering, she was once more in her own place. Here, then, at home …

Poor little Hilary Thorpe wasn't in church,' she observed. 'Such a nice child. I should have liked you to see her. But she's quite prostrated, poor child, so Mrs Gates tells me. And you know, the village people do stare so at anybody who's in trouble and they will want to talk and condole. They mean well, but it's a terrible ordeal.

You know,' he said. 'I rather liked Ferguson, and I couldn't stick Campbell at any price. I rather wish—' 'Can't be helped, Wimsey,' said the Chief Constable. 'Murder is murder, you know.' 'Not always,' said Wimsey.

Master of Arts; Domina; Senior Member of this University (statutum est quod Juniores Senioribus debitam et congruam reverentiam tum in privato tum in publico exhibeant);

So many things in this life are a waste of time

Whatever you're doing, stop it and do something else! Whatever you're buying, pause and buy something different. Be hectored into health and prosperity! Never let up! Never go to sleep! Never be satisfied. If once you are satisfied, all our wheels will run down.

society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.