Quotes About Pepys

For some reason, I got really obsessed with Samuel Pepys and his diaries when I read them, and with that period. I was probably a man with a wig and a frock coat in a past life!

I'm very fond of an old map of London that used to belong to my father. I'm a big London fan, and the evolution of the city is astonishing, when you look back to Pepys and how small it was - everyone knew each other.

Pepys was such a meticulous person that he had little wooden blocks to make all the books on his shelves the same height.

To the Trinity House, where a very good dinner among the old soakers.

Lord of Sandwich came in, but whether it be my doubt or no I cannot tell, but I do not find that he made any sign of kindnesse or respect to me, which troubles me more than any thing in the world.

our late maid Nell, who cried for joy to see me,

I thought we'd done with that. Who's the celebrity this time?' 'Samuel Pepys.

Pepys recorded in his diary a rather more prosaic milestone in his life. On September 25, 1660, he tried a new hot beverage for the first time, recording in his diary: "And afterwards I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink), of which I never had drank before." Whether he liked it or not Pepys didn't say, which is a shame, as it is the first mention we have in English of anyone's drinking a cup of tea.

i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page be page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT.

Pepys was a good scholar, able to read Latin for pleasure all his life; and that very skill may have helped to leave his English free and uncluttered for the Diary, the language of life as opposed to the elaborately constructed formulations of the classroom and study.