Quotes by Evelyn Waugh

About Evelyn Waugh:

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Perhaps host and guest is really the happiest relation for father and son.

Evelyn Waugh

We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them.

Evelyn Waugh

I think to be oversensitive about cliches is like being oversensitive about table manners.

Evelyn Waugh

Professional reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases.

Evelyn Waugh

When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.

Evelyn Waugh

My unhealthy affection for my second daughter has waned. Now I despise all my seven children equally.

Evelyn Waugh

It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.

Evelyn Waugh

Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.

Evelyn Waugh

One forgets words as one forgets names. One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.

Evelyn Waugh

There is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.

Evelyn Waugh

There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.

Evelyn Waugh

Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.

Evelyn Waugh

Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people as static and dynamic.

Evelyn Waugh

I haven't been to sleep for over a year. That's why I go to bed early. One needs more rest if one doesn't sleep.

Evelyn Waugh

Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.

Evelyn Waugh

I put the words down and push them a bit.

Evelyn Waugh

Not everyone grows to be old, but everyone has been younger than he is now.

Evelyn Waugh

What is youth except a man or woman before it is ready or fit to be seen?

Evelyn Waugh

If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.

Evelyn Waugh

You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs except in England, of course.

Evelyn Waugh

We schoolmasters must temper discretion with deceit.

Evelyn Waugh

Author Bio

  • NameEvelyn Waugh
  • DescriptionBritish writer
  • BornOctober 28, 1903
  • DiedApril 10, 1966
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWar Correspondent; Novelist; Writer; Autobiographer
  • AwardsJames Tait Black Memorial Prize