“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.”
“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
“Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure, short of total abstention.”
Penelope Fitzgerald
“There are dilettantes in human relationships just as there are, let's say, in politics.”
Penelope Fitzgerald
“But time given to wishing for what can't be is not only spent, but wasted, and for all that we waste we shall be accountable.”
Penelope Fitzgerald