Quote of the Day (Cyril Connolly, on Why ‘Writing is a More Impure Art Than Music or Painting’)

“Writing is a more impure art than music or painting. It is an art, but it is also the medium in which millions of inartistic people express themselves, describe their work, sell their goods, justify their conduct, propagate their ideas. It is the vehicle of all business and propaganda.” — English essayist, novelist, and editor Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), Enemies of Promise (1938)

Quote of the Day (Cyril Connolly, on Education and Concentration)

“No education is worth having that does not teach the lesson of concentration on a task, however unattractive. These lessons, if not learnt early, will be learnt, if at all, with pain and grief in later life.”— English essayist, novelist, and editor Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), Enemies of Promise (1938)

Quote of the Day (Cyril Connolly, on Our Memories)

“Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.”—British critic Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle, Pt. 3 (1944, rev. 1951).

Quote of the Day (Cyril Connolly, on Education and Concentration)

“No education is worth having that does not teach the lesson of concentration on a task, however unattractive. These lessons, if not learnt early, will be learnt, if at all, with pain and grief in later life.”—Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise (1938)

Quote of the Day (Cyril Connolly, on Writing for Audiences)

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”—British novelist and critic Cyril Connolly, The New Statesman, Feb. 25, 1933