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Tom Stoppard Quotes

1937–2025 Czech Republic

Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL (born Tomáš Straussler; 3 July 1937 – 29 November 2025) was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter, knighted in 1997.

Czech Republic
Conservatives
Journalists
Playwrights
Screenwriters

Also known as: Stoppard, Stoppard, Tom

Random Tom Stoppard quote

82 quotes

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

Misattributed

Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it. [Elle est désirée pour la salir. Non pour elle-même, mais pour la joie goûtée dans la certitude de la profaner.]

Misattributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Tom Stoppard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.