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Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and to madness.

— Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier (1915)

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More quotes by Ford Madox Ford

This is the saddest story I have ever heard.

The Good Soldier (1915)

For the judging of contemporary literature the only test is one's personal taste.

The March of Literature (1939)

Pride and reserve are not the only things in life; perhaps they are not even the best things. But if they happen to be your particular virtues you will go all to pieces if you let them go.

The Good Soldier (1915)

Only two classes of books are of universal appeal: the very best and the very worst.

Joseph Conrad : A Personal Remembrance (1924)

I couldn't regard myself as personally repulsive. No man can, or, if he ever comes to do so, that is the end of him.

The Good Soldier (1915)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ford Madox Ford (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.