Quotes by Norman Douglas

About Norman Douglas:

George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind. His travel books such as his 1915 Old Calabria were also appreciated for the quality of their writing.
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

You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.

Norman Douglas

History deals with situations and figures not imaginary but real. It demands therefore a combination of qualities unnecessary to the poet or writer of romance - glacial judgment coupled with fervent sympathy. The poet may be an uninspired illiterate,...

Norman Douglas

The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship.

Norman Douglas

The longer one lives, the more one realizes that nothing is a dish for every day.

Norman Douglas

To find a friend one must close one eye - to keep him, two.

Norman Douglas

It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.

Norman Douglas

They who are all things to their neighbors cease to be anything to themselves.

Norman Douglas

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty.

Norman Douglas

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertising.

Norman Douglas

If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.

Norman Douglas

Bouillabaisse is only good because cooked by the French, who, if they cared to try, could produce an excellent and nutritious substitute out of cigar stumps and empty matchboxes.

Norman Douglas

Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.

Norman Douglas

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.

Norman Douglas

Education is a state-controlled manufactory of echoes.

Norman Douglas

Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it.

Norman Douglas

There is in us a lyric germ or nucleus which deserves respect; it bids a man to ponder or create; and in this dim corner of himself he can take refuge and find consolations which the society of his fellow creatures does not provide.

Norman Douglas

A man can believe a considerable deal of rubbish, and yet go about his daily work in a rational and cheerful manner.

Norman Douglas

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes?

Norman Douglas

The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living, which are to be desired when dying.

Norman Douglas

Author Bio

  • NameNorman Douglas
  • DescriptionBritish writer
  • BornDecember 8, 1868
  • DiedFebruary 9, 1952
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Autobiographer
  • WorksSouth Wind