J. B. Priestley

Britain, which in the years immediately before this war was rapidly losing such democratic virtues as it possessed, is now being bombed and burned into democracy.

We should like to have some towering geniuses, to reveal us to ourselves in colour and fire, but of course they would have to fit into the pattern of our society and be able to take orders from sound administrative types.

When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old there is no respect for the old. I missed out coming and going.

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

Marriage is like paying an endless visit in your worst clothes.

Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile.

I never read the life of any important person without discovering that he knew more and could do more than I could ever hope to know or do in half a dozen lifetimes.

To show a child what once delighted you, to find the child's delight added to your own - this is happiness.

If we openly declare what is wrong with us, what is our deepest need, then perhaps the death and despair will by degrees disappear.

The more we elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.

The greatest writers of this age... are aware of the mystery of our existence.

Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch.

There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for age, I missed it coming and going.

We pay when old for the excesses of youth.