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Charm is the ultimate weapon, the supreme seduction, against which there are few defences. If you've got it, you need almost nothing else, neither money, looks, nor pedigree. It's a gift, only to be given away, and the more used the more there is. It is also a climate of behaviour set for the perpetual summer and thermostatically controlled by taste and tact.

— Laurie Lee I Can't Stay Long (1975)

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More quotes by Laurie Lee

She is of course just an ordinary miracle, but is also the particular late wonder of my life.

I Can't Stay Long (1975)

This London, of course, with its hollow, drum-like name, is neither England nor abroad but something on its own, a walled fantasy of remembered tales.

I Can't Stay Long (1975)

Love is also disquiet, the brooding pleasures of doubt, midnights wasted by speculation, the frantic dance round the significance of the last thing she said, the need to see her to have life confirmed.

I Can't Stay Long (1975)

In the armoury of man, charm is the enchanted dart, light and subtle as a hummingbird. But it is deceptive in one thing - like a sense of humour, if you think you've got it, you probably haven't.

I Can't Stay Long (1975)

The last days of my childhood were also the last days of the village. I belonged to that generation which saw, by chance, the end of a thousand years' life.

Cider with Rosie (1959)

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Attribution

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