Quotes from Stephen Vizinczey

All great power has to do to destroy itself is persist in trying to do the impossible.

The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test.

Art experts are unfailingly opposed to Art for the simple reason that they are interested in Art - but Art is not interested in Art. Art is interested in life.

When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness.

The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in.

Like all wage slaves, he had two crosses to bear: the people he worked for and the people he worked with

Most bad books get that way because their authors are engaged in trying to justify themselves. If a vain author is an alcoholic, then the most sympathetically portrayed character in his book will be an alcoholic. This sort of thing is very boring for outsiders.

Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.

Powerful men in particular suffer from the delusion that human beings have no memories. I would go so far as to say that the distinguishing trait of powerful men is the psychotic certainty that people forget acts of infamy as easily as their parents birth

Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.

The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test.

We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them.

Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it.

I had affairs with a few girls of my own age, and they taught me that no girl, however intelligent and war-hearted, can possibly know or feel half as much at twenty as she will at thirty-five.

Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.

Great writers are not those who tell us we shouldn't play with fire, but those who make our fingers burn.

I made a resolution I would throw myself into the Danube if I didn't ask you to make love with me today.

You tell me your favorite novelists and I'll tell you whom you vote for, or whether you vote at all.

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.

I suppose it's more unnerving to be a boy than a girl,' she conceded.'It's the boys who have to make fools of themselves.

Private Eye continued to report that the stench in the Houses of Parliament was just as strong as it had been on the day when the birds flew away and the rodents fled.

language becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

Y, aunque espero que estas Memorias han de ser instructivas, no han de ayudarles a conseguir que las mujeres se sientan más atraídas por ustedes de lo que ustedes se sientan por ellas. Si, en el fondo, ustedes las odian, si sueñan con humillarlas, si gozan mostrándose autoritarios, es posible que ellas les paguen en la misma moneda. Ellas les querrán y les desearán tanto como ustedes las deseen y las quieran a ellas, bendita sea su generosidad.

Is it possible that I am not alone in believing that in the dispute between Galileo and the Church, the Church was right and the centre of man's universe is the earth?