Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes

1893–1957 England

Dorothy Leigh Sayers (13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was a British author, translator, student of classical and modern languages, and Christian humanist.

England
Authors
Essayists
Novelists
Playwrights

Also known as: Dorothy Sayers

Random Dorothy L. Sayers quote

26 quotes

I always have a quotation for everything—it saves original thinking.

Have His Carcase (1932)

The active hatreds rend and snarl at one another; at the bottom, the sullen hatreds lie gurgling, unable even to express themselves for the rage that chokes them.

I have the most ill-regulated memory. It does those things which it ought not to do and leaves undone the things it ought to have done.

Every time a man expects, as he says, his money to work for him, he is expecting other people to work for him.

The Other Six Deadly Sins (1941)

What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.

Are Women Human? (1938)

The surrender to sin which began with mutual indulgence leads by an imperceptible degradation to solitary self-indulgence.

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

Gaudy Night (1936)

A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

Are Women Human? (1938)

The art of change-ringing is peculiar to the English, and, like most English peculiarities, unintelligible to the rest of the world.

The Nine Tailors (1934)

If you... go on killing everyone you meet till people begin to think you're first cousin to an upas tree, naturally you're found out in the end.

Unnatural Death (1927)

Freddie Arbuthnot*: "...mild old gentlemen do sometimes break out into a spot of tut-tuttery."

Gaudy Night (1936)

Books … are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.

The Unpleasantness at The Bellona Club (1928)

And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that? I love you — I am at rest with you — I have come home.

Busman's Honeymoon (1937)

What do we find God 'doing about' this business of sin and evil?...God did not abolish the fact of evil; He transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion; He rose from the dead.

The Triumph of Easter (1938)

Those who prefer their English sloppy have only themselves to thank if the advertisement writer uses his mastery of the vocabulary and syntax to mislead their weak minds.

The Psychology of Advertising (1937)

Honoria Lucasta, Dowager Duchess of Denver: It's so much better to do things neatly and properly, even stupid things.

Clouds of Witness (1926)

The young were always theoretical; only the middle-aged could realise the deadliness of principles. (Ch. 21)

Gaudy Night (1936)

Lord Peter Wimsey: I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking.

Have His Carcase (1932)

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

Clouds of Witness (1926)

Harriet Vane: If anybody does marry you it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle.

Strong Poison (1930)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Dorothy L. Sayers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.