Ivy Compton Burnett Quotes

There’s not much to say. I haven’t been at all deedy.

There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not always the best.

When I die people will say it is the best thing for me. It is because they know it is the worst. They want to avoid the feeling of pity.

There is more difference within the sexes than between them.

We must use words as they are used, or stand aside from life.

And people in life hardly seem definite enough to appear in print. They are not good or bad enough, or clever or stupid enough, or comic or pitiful enough.

As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.

It will be a beautiful family talk, mean and worried and full of sorrow and spite and excitement. I cannot be asked to miss it in my weak state. I should only fret.

People don’t resent having nothing nearly as much as too little.

‘Well, of course, people are only human,’ said Dudley to his brother, as they walked to the house behind the women. ‘But it really does not seem much for them to be.’