Quotes by Dorothy L. Sayers

About Dorothy L. Sayers:

Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
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For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and p...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Here be dragons to be slain, here be rich rewards to gain; If we perish in the seeking, why, how small a thing is death!

Dorothy L. Sayers

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey: Facts, Bunter, must have facts. When I was a small boy, I always hated facts. Thought they were nasty, hard things, all nobs. Mervyn Bunter: Yes, my lord. My old mother always used to say... Lord Peter Wimsey: Your mother, Bunter? ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Some people's blameless lives are to blame for a good deal.

Dorothy L. Sayers

If it ever occurs to people to value the honour of the mind equally with the honour of the body, we shall get a social revolution of a quite unparalleled sort.

Dorothy L. Sayers

The rule seemed to be that a great woman must either die unwed ... or find a still greater man to marry her. ... The great man, on the other hand, could marry where he liked, not being restricted to great women; indeed, it was often found sweet and c...

Dorothy L. Sayers

It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him -- or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.

Dorothy L. Sayers

What'll Geoffrey do when you pull off your First, my child?" demanded Miss Haydock. "Well, Eve -- it be awkward if I do that. Poor lamb! I shall have to make him believe I only did it by looking fragile and pathetic at the viva.

Dorothy L. Sayers

You'd think (losing his job and degree for having made false claims as a researcher) would be a lesson to him," said Miss Hillyard. "It didn't pay, did it? Say he sacrificed his professional honour for the women and children we hear so much about -- ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.

Dorothy L. Sayers

The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made d...

Dorothy L. Sayers

A marriage of two independent and equally irritable intelligences seems to me reckless to the point of insanity.

Dorothy L. Sayers

He was being about as protective as a can-opener.

Dorothy L. Sayers

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Listen, Harriet. I do unterstand. I know you don't want either to give or to take ... You don't want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person." "That's true. That's the truest thing you ever said." "All right. I can respect that. ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Were you looking for a horse-shoe?" "No; I was expecting the horse, but the shoe is a piece of pure, gorgeous luck." "And observation. I found it." "You did. And I could kiss you for it. You need not shrink and tremble. I am not going to do it. When ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

She suddenly saw Wimsey in a new light. She knew him to be intelligent, clean, courteous, wealthy, well-read, amusing and enamored, but he had not so far produced in her that crushing sense of inferiority which leads to prostration and hero-worship. ...

Dorothy L. Sayers

For God's sake, let's take the word 'possess' and put a brick round its neck and drown it ... We can't possess one another. We can only give and hazard all we have.

Dorothy L. Sayers

My husband would do for me ...' It's degrading. No human being ought to have such power over another." "It's a very real power, Harriet." "Then ... we won't use it. If we disagree, we'll fight it out like gentlemen. We won't stand for matrimonial bla...

Dorothy L. Sayers

Author Bio

  • NameDorothy L. Sayers
  • DescriptionEnglish crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer
  • AliasesDorothy Sayers; Dorothy Leigh Sayers
  • BornJune 13, 1893
  • DiedDecember 17, 1957
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Translator; Novelist; Playwright; Essayist; Poet
  • WorksWhose Body?; Clouds Of Witness; Unnatural Death; The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club; Lord Peter Views The Body; Strong Poison; Five Red Herrings; Have His Carcase; Hangman's Holiday; Murder Must Advertise; The Nine Tailors; Gaudy Night; Busman's Honeymoon; In The Teeth Of The Evidence; Striding Folly