Penelope Fitzgerald Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

On the whole I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

Penelope Fitzgerald
There are dilettantes in human relationships just as there are, let's say, in politics.

Penelope Fitzgerald
More than that, I believe that the grass is green because green is restful to the human eye, that the sky is blue to give us an idea of the infinite. And that blood is red so that murder will be more easily detected and criminals will be brought to justice. Yes, and I believe that I shall live forever, but I shall live without reason.

Penelope Fitzgerald
The body, then, has a mind of its own. It must follow, then, that the Mind has a body of its own, even if it's like nothing that we can see around us, or have ever seen.

Penelope Fitzgerald
Surely you have to succeed, if you give everything you have.'
'I don't see why. Everyone has to give everything they have eventually. They have to die. Dying can't be called a success.

Penelope Fitzgerald
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

Penelope Fitzgerald
The frame of mind, however, is everything. Given that, one can have a very satisfactory party all by oneself.

Penelope Fitzgerald
It's very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren't by any means always welcome, but at least one can't be mistaken as to who or what they are.

Penelope Fitzgerald
Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure, short of total abstention.

Penelope Fitzgerald
He struggled to keep his temper. It struck him that both Marta and Chiara took advantage of him by attacking him with their ignorance, or call it innocence. A serious thinking adult had no defence against innocence because he was obliged to respect it, whereas the innocent scarcely knows what respect is, or seriousness either.

Penelope Fitzgerald
I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy—for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?

Penelope Fitzgerald
To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is – in other words, not a thing, but a think.

Penelope Fitzgerald
Why read when you can pick up a spade and find out for yourself?
Of archaeology

Penelope Fitzgerald
If they don't depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.

Penelope Fitzgerald