P. D. James Quotes
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We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.
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The great tragedy of Alzheimer's disease, and the reason why we dread it, is that it leaves us with no defence, not even against those who love us.
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you'd like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That must be the most futile oath anyone ever swears.
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It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
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What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.
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Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.
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We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends.
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What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
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There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.
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In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.
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Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.
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Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not Governments. When governments are generous it is with other people's money, other people's safety, other people's future.
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Man is diminished if he lives without knowledge of his past; without hope of a future he becomes a beast.
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I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.
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When my turn comes I propose to take my lethal capsule comfortably in bed at home and preferably on my own.
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Use some reverence. Remember what he was only a minute ago. You wouldn't have dared laid a hand on him.
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Perhaps His experiment went spectacularly wrong, sir. Perhaps He's just baffled. Seeing the mess, not knowing how to put it right. Perhaps not wanting to put it right. Perhaps He only had enough power left for one final intervention. So He made it. Whoever He is, whatever He is, I hope he burns in His own Hell.
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If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.
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I'm not a tyrant, but I can't afford to be merciful. Whatever it is necessary to do, I will do it.
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Darling, you can't promise that...but I like to hear you say it.
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the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.
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I don't see why escapist literature should not also be a work of art.
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We all die alone. We shall endure death as once we enjoyed birth. You can't share either experience.
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God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest.